March 22 is World Water Day, an annual international celebration launched and organized by the United Nations. The goal of the day is to raise awareness about a wide range of water-based issues from around the world. This year’s theme is “Nature From Water”, which invites everyone to think about how nature can provide solutions to the water challenges we face today. 

To celebrate World Water Day this year, we’ve rounded up 20 of our favorite projects that utilize water as a central design feature. Whether it be Zumthor's Thermal Vals or Chritso and Jeanne-Claude's Floating Piers, water has been playing an important role in architectural design and in demarcating the boundaries of nature against our built environment.

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Stefano Boeri Architetti has revealed the design of three new innovative schools to be built in Tirana, Albania, that will be open 24 hours a day, everyday of the year, transforming them into essential social centers for residents of all ages.

The three new structures will be integrated into Stefano Boeri Architetti’s competition-winning masterplan for Tirana, positioned within key social nodes of the Albanian capital’s northwest quarter: the neighborhoods of Don Bosco, Kodër-Kamëz and Shqiponja Square. Multiple schools will be housed within each of the three structures, which will also contain meeting and social spaces open and available to the entire community.

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The new social housing project by Stefano Boeri Architetti is the first to integrate a vertical forest into an affordable residential skyscraper, improving the living conditions often incurred within such developments. 5,200 shrubs and 125 trees will be planted up the 75m tall structure in Eindhoven.

Trudo Vertical Forest will contain 125 social housing units over 19 floors to house lower income social groups, particularly young people. Each apartment will include a balcony filled with an array of trees, plants and shrubs for a forest soaring into the city's sky.

In preparation for the first World Forum on Urban Forests promoted by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), which will be held from November 28 to December 1, 2018 in Mantova, Italy, Stefano Boeri Architetti has launched a global call for action regarding projects, strategies and ideas in relation to urban forestry.

We, designers of the first Vertical Forest in Milan, invite architects, urban planners, botanists, agronomists, forestry corps, tree growers, geographers, ethologists, landscape scientists, technicians, researchers and experts in green care and urban forestry, real estate developers, administrators and representatives of local institutions and civil society, members and representatives of international organizations, funding agencies, universities and research institutes, and NGOs,

In August 2016, a powerful 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck central Italy, resulting in the loss of nearly 300 lives and the destruction of centuries-worth of historic architecture. At the center of the destruction was Amatrice, a beautiful hill town set in the Latium Apennines, which was reduced to mere rubble, leaving hundreds dead or injured and the survivors homeless.

But the community could not be held down. Shortly after the disaster, rebuilding efforts began, with the assistance of some of Italy’s top architects, including Renzo Piano and Stefano Boeri Architetti, who were able to construct a brand new canteen in just a few weeks time.

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Can architecture and design reverse climate change? Architect and founding partner of Stefano Boeri Architetti (SBA), Stefano Boeri believes it can. Boeri’s Vertical Forest, a project which marries the natural and urban spheres through biodiversity and reforestation, has already come to fruition in Milan, is currently under construction in Beijing, and soon to be constructed in Shanghai. (Watch the video to learn more about Boeri’s Vertical Forest projects.)

The next Vertical Forest tower will be located in France, as Stefano Boeri Architetti have revealed renderings of their designs for Forêt Blanche, a 54-meter-tall mixed-use tower located within the Paris metropolitan region in Villiers-sur-Marne.

The latest in the family of Vertical Forest concepts, which have included built and planned projects for China, Europe, South America and the United States, Forêt Blanche will be covered by 2000 trees and plants – a green surface equivalent to a hectare of forest and more than 10 times the building footprint.

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Stefano Boeri Architetti’s next vertical forest project will be found in Utrecht, after the firm was selected as winners in an international competition for the construction of a new urban district in Jaarbeursboulevard. Dubbed the “Hawthrone Tower,” the first Dutch Vertical Forest will be one of two new high-rise towers to rise on the site in the Utrecht city center, located near the Utrecht Central Train Station, alongside a tower designed by Amsterdam-based MVSA studio.

The 90-meter-tall tower will be covered by 10,000 plants of different species (360 trees, 9,640 of shrubs and flowers), aimed at creating “an innovative experience of cohabitation between city and nature.” The green facade will allow Hawthorne Tower to absorb more than 5.4 tons of CO2, scrubbing the air for healthier living conditions for both residents of the tower and the wider city.

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• Architects

  Stefano Boeri Architetti

• Location

  Amatrice, Province of Rieti, Italy

• Lead Architects

  Stefano Boeri, Corrado Longa, Marco Giorgio, Julia Gocalek, Daniele Barillari

• Area

  490.0 m2

• Project Year

  2016

• Photographs

  Francesco Mattuzzi, Stefano Boeri Architetti

I really hope that this experiment will become a reference for many other architects, for many other urban planners, for many other public administrators and politicians, in order to implement, improve and multiplicate the realization of forest cities in China and all over the world.

In this video, Stefano Boeri explains the design of the just-announced Lizhou Forest City, which, when completed in 2020, will become the world’s first ground-up city constructed employing the firm’s signature Vertical Forest research.

Boeri explains the evolution of the concept from their first Vertical Forest project in Milan to the Lizhou development, which will accommodate up to 30,000 people in a master plan of environmentally efficient structures covered top-to-bottom in plants and trees, as well as the planning processes required to bring the project to fruition.

Construction has begun on the Liuzhou Forest City in the mountainous region of Guangxi, China. Designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti, the new ground-up city will accommodate up to 30,000 people in a master plan of environmentally efficient structures covered top-to-bottom in plants and trees.

Liuzhou Forest City will contain all of the essential typologies of the modern city – offices, houses, hotels, hospitals and schools – housed within a 175 hectare site near the Liujiang River. Employing the firm’s signature vertical forest system, The facades of each building will be covered in plant life, with a total 40,000 trees and nearly 1 million plants from over 100 species specified.

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In 1925, Italian designer Armando Brasini created a sweeping masterplan to transform the Albanian capital city of Tirana. Almost one hundred years later, the Tirana 2030 (TR030) Local Plan by Italian firm Stefano Boeri Architetti has been approved by Tirana City Council. Collaborating with UNLAB and IND, Boeri seeks to define a new era in the country’s capital, incorporating controlled development, advanced infrastructure, green corridors, and an enhancement of the city’s architectural heritage.

+ 19

Stefano Boeri Architetti has released plans for their first “Vertical Forest” project to be realized in Asia, two mixed-use towers to be located near the Yangtze River in the Pukou District of Nanjing, China. In total, over 1100 trees will cover the building, helping to regenerate local biodiversity while cleaning the air.

Stefano Boeri Architetti has unveiled plans for the Guizhou Mountain Forest Hotel, a 31,200 square meter (336,000 square foot) resort hotel located in the 10 Thousand Peaks Area of the province of Guizhou, China. Nestled in the Wanfeng Valley, the hotel design draws from the region’s dramatic landscape, recently named one of the New York Times’ top destinations of 2016.