Stefano Boeri received several awards for his original Vertical Forest, Milan's greenery-covered Bosco Verticale, and the Italian architect has since conceived similar buildings for Switzerland, China, France, and more. His studio's latest iteration on the design is slated for Tirana, Albania, and will be covered in over 3,200 shrubs and bushes.
The Vertical Forest of Tirana is planned for the city center as part of a larger development push in the area. Indeed there's a high-profile architecture boom in Tirana at the moment and other projects planned include BIG's new National Theatre of Albania and MVRDV's Downtown One Tirana.
The building will rise to 21 floors, plus feature four underground levels. The ground floor will mostly host retail space but above that will be residential space, with a total of 105 apartments.
Its design is similar to Boeri's previous Vertical Forest projects and features a glass facade offering apartments floor-to-ceiling windows to frame views of the city. The greenery, as you'd expect, is very extensive, with cantilevering planters holding over 3,200 shrubs and bushes, plus 145 trees. In total, Stefano Boeri Architetti says that there will be over 550 sq m (almost 6,000 sq ft) of greenery.
"Tirana is a Mediterranean capital, which is why we have chosen different essences typical of this particular ecosystem for the first Albanian Vertical Forest; shrubs characterized by a very vivid green color and brightly colored flowers in yellow and violet, as well as scented plants, such as myrtle and rosemary," says botanist and landscape architect, Laura Gatti.
The firm has confirmed that construction has already started, and the Vertical Forest of Tirana should be complete in 2021/2022. The project will also involve local company Gener 2 Sh.p.k.
Source: Stefano Boeri Architetti