The Forest City Project

The Forest City Project faces the challenge of inventing how to inhabit the planet, making the fight against climate change a reality following the sustainable development goals of UN Habitat. The city will not grow following traditional urban patterns, but will follow natural principles, developing a new type of branched linear city, where all neighborhoods adapt to their environment and merge with it. The city will create productive mixed-use communities where people can live, work and play in an environment connected to the world, where nature will inspire the new human habitat.

The founding project of the proposal is a laboratory-factory that will educate young people in design and manufacturing with local wood, promoting the creation of biostart-ups. The buildings are designed with local wood, will be energy self-sufficient and will recycle their water to produce food and vegetation. The project allows us to think about how to create a new generation of cities beyond the industrial city. Africa will be urbanized in the coming decades. You then have an opportunity to think about the human habitat without assuming the mistakes of 21st century cities. The growth model promotes the continuity of habitable settlements, but also protects nature. In this way, the continuity of transportation, energy or water infrastructure and, at the same time, the continuity of natural systems. The buildings will be an example of ecology: they will produce the energy they need for their operation; there will be full traceability of the origin of your materials; They will recycle their wastewater with the vegetation and will be able to produce food; They will completely recycle the waste they generate; They will use information systems to monitor their buildings and the city itself.