Inside and on the cover of the latest book by American architect Stefan Al, titled Dwelling on Earth: The Past and Future of the Places We Call Home, the Bosco Verticale in Milan—designed by Boeri Studio (Stefano Boeri, Gianandrea Barreca and Giovanni La Varra)—is featured.
From tiny pit houses in the Levant and Mesoamerica thousands of years ago to the soaring skyscrapers of Dubai, New York and Shanghai today, the book surveys the evolution of human habitation. Stefan Al weaves together archaeology, engineering, social history and environmental science to explain how our homes—the spaces where we spend half our lives—have developed over the centuries and how they have helped shape civilization.
From ancient Pompeii to contemporary Hong Kong, from industrial-age Liverpool to postwar Levittown, the author shows how our housing choices have both reflected and influenced ideas about gender roles, privacy and comfort.
Within this context, the Bosco Verticale in Milan is presented as a prototype for a new form of architectural biodiversity that places not only human beings at its center, but also the relationship between humans and other living species. Stylistically, the project was conceived as an “architecture at the scale of trees,” in which humans are discreet guests—a “home for trees and birds that also hosts people.” In doing so, it shifts the focus from the concept of sustainability toward a broader idea of integration with living nature in all its forms.
For more information: https://wwnorton.co.uk/books/9781324065722-dwelling-on-earth