Abstract:
Cities have contributed for centuries to the promotion of some of humanity’s greatest ideas, we must now urgently include them as among the principal players in the environmental debate and at the forefront of any policy tackling and countering – possibly reversing – climate change. Nevertheless, even today one of the most significant technologies capable of absorbing CO2 and restoring our environment is photosynthesis. Planting trees, in addition to protecting existing natural areas and biodiversity, together with de-carbonization, renewable energies, digitalization, smart mobility and the circular economy could be the set of strategies necessary to tackle climate change.
Today the effects of the Anthropocene age are ever more visible, changing our environment and affecting every species that lives within it. Green Obsession offers a path to be taken, a hard but still necessary paradigm shift – even for architecture and urbanism – that aims to give a voice to this much needed ecological transition. This book aims to unveil the processes and the complexity involved in the search for a new kind of urbanism, while raising questions and opening old wounds related to the relationship between the human species and Nature and finally putting these fragments together to create a portrait of our era. We need to conceive cities as new green catalysts. Now more than ever, it is essential to act together as separate individuals and professionals, joining the cause as members of the global community with a shared environmental strategy. We all have to open the era of a new alliance between Nature and City.
→ 45 min lecture and 15 min Q&A.
Bio:
Stefano Boeri, architect and urban planner, is Full Professor at Politecnico di Milano. In Shanghai he is Director of the Future City Lab at Tongji University: a post-doctoral research program which explores the future of contemporary metropolis under the perspectives of biodiversity and urban forestry.
Stefano Boeri’s practice ranges from the design of architecture and urban visions to product design, with a constant focus on the geopolitical and environmental implications of urban phenomena.
The attention to the relationship between city and living nature, leads in 2014 to the realization of the Bosco Verticale in Milan, the first prototype of residential building hosting 800 trees and 20,000 plants. Among the main players in the debate on climate change in the field of international architecture, in November 2018 he was Co-Chair of the Scientific Committee for the first World Forum on Urban Forests, organized in Mantua together with FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization, UN).
In 2019 he presented in New York the Great Green Wall of Cities / Green Urban Oases project, developed with FAO, C40, UN Habitat e other international research organizations, on occasion of the UN Climate Action Summit 2019. From 2011 to 2013 he was Councilor for Culture at the Municipality in Milan. In 2018 he has been appointed President of Triennale di Milano and Since 2020, Stefano Boeri is President of the Scientific Committee of Forestami, the project aimed at planting 3 million trees in the metropolitan area of Milan within 2030.