Plans for a green ‘forest city’ that will help to fight pollution are about to become a reality as construction begins on an innovative new project in southern China.
The Liuzhou Forest City, designed by Italian architectural firm Stefano Boeri Architetti, is the first ever city of its kind as it will produce 900 tonnes of oxygen and help absorb almost 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 57 tonnes of pollutants every year.
This will not only vastly improve air quality for residents but will decrease the average air temperature, create noise barriers, and improve biodiversity of species living there, such as birds, insects and small animals.
Not forgetting the 30,000 humans who will also be housed in the urban oasis.
The new city will have all the components needed of a major residential area - offices, houses, hotels, one hospitals and two schools - but everything will be totally covered in trees and plants.
In fact, there will be a grand total of 40,000 trees and almost 1,000,000 plants of 100 species, sprawling across the architecture in the Liuzhou Forest City when it is completed.
Commissioned by Liuzhou Municipality Urban Planning, the city is being built in the mountain area of Guangxi, in an area that covers 175 hectares on the bank of the Liujiang river.
It will be connected to the pre-existing city of Liuzhou through a fast rail line used by electric cars.
Not only will it be helping urban air quality, but will have other environmentally friendly designs, such as geothermal energy for interior air conditioning and solar panels over roofs for collecting renewable energy.
The project was commissioned following the success of the Vertical Forest in Milan, which saw two residential towers have 900 trees planted on the exterior to help absorb air pollution.
If the Liuzhou Forest City goes to plan, they hope to replicate in Nanjing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.