Architect brings trees to the sky
Print Edition
Stefano Boeri, a world renowned architect, curator, critic and educator, has recently been in Shanghai for the launch of his “Vertical Forest” inside WE Cultural & Creative Center at the Bund. Boeri’s famous architectural works include the 2015 Milan Expo Masterplan, Milan Vertical Forest, the World’s G8 Summit Venue and the Marseille Mediterranean Cultural Center. From 2011 to 2013 in Milan, he served as deputy mayor of the city.
His “Vertical Forest” is a new model of urban architecture and demonstrates how urban development in China can be sustainable. It discusses the development of four basic modes: new compounds, industry part updates, suburban green belt and old building adaptation. These patterns can be economically viable, while the city reaches an important step toward a greener future. The ultimate goal is to use the approach in a central China city while ensuring people do not lose contact with nature.
Boeri is now working on a project with DOBE in Shanghai involving the renovation of the old stock exchange building that was built in 1931 at the Bund. Its former owner was Du Yuesheng (1888-1951), a legendary gangster who helped the old stock exchange become the biggest in East Asia at that time.
“This is a great building that witness the vicissitudes of the history of the Bund and the city,” Boeri says. “I want to ‘vitalize’ the building, of course not through simple painting and decoration, but to renovate it to face the future after a century of silence.”
He shares more about his ideas and plans with Shanghai Daily.
When you were a small kid, did you ever have a dream house in your mind? Did you paint it? What was it like?
I did. I wanted a flying house. The house has a drawing room facing the sea or hidden in a forest. This flying building is not anti-gravity. On the contrary, a flying house needs gravity to get its anti-gravity trait. This flying building is the reflection of our living environment and the private expression of the world, which comes from our subconscious.
I know you are the initiator of “Vertical Forest,” which is a fabulous idea in today’s forest of high rises. What inspired you to develop this concept? Did you have any technical problems in implementing it, for example, the bearing capacity?
The inspiration for Vertical Forest came from multiple channels: First is a special novel, “The Baron in the Trees,” by (Italo) Calvino in 1957. It tells a story about a nobleman who decides to live the rest of his life in a tree. Next is Friedensreich Hundertwasser. His art in Milan in 1973 and the act of leasing trees explained the relationship between urban residents and trees. Another is a song of singer Celentano’s in 1972, which tells a story about a tree as high as a building of 30 stories. There is also the famous performance art of Boyeth at the 7th Kassel Documenta. He connected 7,000 pieces of marble with 7,000 trees, and sold them to the public, one rock planted with one tree. Last and the most impressive inspiration came from a villa design of my mother Cini Boeri’s in 1969. She protected all the trees on the site and designed a unique residence around nature. I still remember when I was a child I went to see the construction site with my mother.
You have taught at several world famous universities, such as Harvard, Columbia and MIT, what is the exciting part of being a professor?
In the teaching process, the most complicated and special part is to see the possibility that the students can keep learning and making progress. We must let the students know that design doesn’t mean to piece up something from existing options, but to find and test new possibilities in the options.
Milan is a city noted for its fashion, in your eyes, could you use three adjectives to describe what is fashion? Are you a person acute in catching the latest fashion?
Fashion is light, seductive and precise. I prefer to follow the lateral streams of fashion.
Do you remember your first trip to Shanghai? What’s your impression of the city?
It was in 1979, for a day. I was traveling with my mother from Tokyo to Beijing. I saw a city that doesn’t exist anymore although the DNA of that amazing city is still present in the niches of contemporary Shanghai.
The building you are working on was built in 1931. In fact, renovating these old buildings while retaining its original appearance is a trend. There already exist some successful examples around the Bund.
What kind of characteristics will make this building different?
In architecture, conservation is never only respect of the past; it always needs a contemporary reinterpretation of what we have inherited.
Also in this case, we are redesigning some details of the external facades and rediscovering the perception of its original internal empty and vertical space.
What is the most difficult part in renovating this building?
That is to find a new shape for its original role as an epicenter of international exchange. Thanks to its renovation, instead of the original flows of money, the building will be shaped by the flows of art and culture.
Some say that China lacks young, talented architects, what do you suggest students studying in this field at universities across the country do?
My suggestion is to travel all around China, travel in the cities and in the countryside in search of the roots of an ancient culture of intimacy with the landscape that is still present and powerful.
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