Italian architect Stefano Boeri has revealed designs for a plant-covered 36-storey tower in Lausanne, Switzerland, continuing the “vertical forest” notion he trialled with a pair of towers in Milan (+ slideshow).
According to Boeri, the building in the Chavannes-Près-Renens district of the city will be the 1st tower in the globe to be covered with evergreen trees.
The predominantly residential 117-metre-tall building will contain apartments ranging in size from two to 5 bedrooms, as well as offices, a gym and a panoramic restaurant on its prime floor.
Renderings launched by Boeri’s Milan studio these days present facades comprising projecting terraces that are faced with reinforced concrete panels.
The roofs of these boxes accommodate plants like the coniferous trees that give the project its name, La Tour des Cedres, or The Cedar Trees Tower.
As with Boeri’s Bosco Verticale buildings in Milan, the intention is that the leaves of the trees will help to trap fine dust, absorb carbon dioxide and make oxygen to increase the city’s air top quality.
Associated story: Villa Méditerranée by Boeri Studio
“With the Tower of Cedar Trees we will have the opportunity to realise a plain developing that will have a excellent position in the Lausanne landscape,” said Boeri in a statement. “An architecture even able to introduce a considerable biodiversity of vegetal species in the middle of an essential European city.”
“The Tower, also thanks to its form and the modifying colors of cedar trees and plants in the course of the seasons, could turn out to be a landmark in the panorama of Lake Geneva,” the architect added.
“This will make Lausanne a cutting-edge city in the worldwide challenge to apply urban good quality collectively with sustainability and biodiversity.”
Alongside one hundred cedar trees, 6,000 shrubs and 18,000 plants will also contribute to green surfaces totalling approximately three,000 square metres. Cedar was selected because of its longevity and capacity to withstand severe climatic problems.
Model of La Tour des Cedres
Stefano Boeri Architetti was awarded the venture soon after seeing off competition from worldwide firms such as Mario Botta Architetto, Richter Dahl Rocha & Associés Architectes and Goettsch Partners.
Model of La Tour des Cedres
The studio collaborated with Buro Happold Engineering on structural details and with Italian agronomist Laura Gatti on the planting concept. Development is due to commence in 2017.
Boeri is one particular of numerous architects to combine plants and architecture in latest many years. French architect Jean Nouvel teamed up with botanist Patrick Blanc to create a pair of plant-covered towers in Sydney, although a holiday resort in Vietnam by Vo Trong Nghia characteristics concrete louvers that help climbing plants on its facades.
Exploded axonometric – click for larger picture 
Site program – click for bigger image 
Cross segment – click for bigger picture 
Area AA and BB – click for greater picture 
