Stefano Boeri Architetti completes latest Vertical Forest skyscraper in Utrecht

Italian studio Stefano Boeri Architetti has completed the Wonderwoods Vertical Forest in Utrecht, the Netherlands, a 104-metre-tall mixed-use tower wrapped by balconies supporting hundreds of trees and thousands of plants.

Located in Beurskwartier, a new car-free district in the centre of Utrecht, the 31-storey Wonderwoods Vertical Forest forms part of the wider mixed-use Wonderwoods development, which includes an adjacent, smaller tree-covered block by local studio MVSA.

As well as providing 200 apartments in varying sizes, Wonderwoods Vertical Forest contains shops, leisure areas and offices above bicycle parking and public squares at ground level.

On the development's seventh storey, a bridge connecting the Vertical Forest to the adjacent MVSA building incorporates additional public gardens and restaurant spaces overlooking the city.

"After the Trudo Vertical Forest, Wonderwoods Vertical Forest is the first Bosco Verticale in the Netherlands that hosts public functions and is open to all citizens, with the aim of making this new architectural typology increasingly integrated with the urban fabric and accessible to all," Stefano Boeri Architetti said.

Depending on the apartment size, the typical floor layout gives each access to at least one of the tower's plant-filled balconies, which are organised in a stepped arrangement to ensure sufficient natural light and headroom for the trees to grow.

The tower is the latest in a series by Stefano Boeri Architetti that began with the first Vertical Forest or Bosco Verticale prototype built in Milan in 2014.

Similar to previous Vertical Forest projects, Wonderwoods was constructed using a steel and concrete structure with prefabricated facade and balcony elements, finished in white concrete and terrazzo tiles.

The undersides of the tower's balconies have been lined in contrasting planks of dark wood and also incorporate nesting areas for birds, alongside bug hotels in the development's larger green spaces.

"Wonderwoods Vertical Forest is a living architecture with facades that change in colour composition and size of the foliage," said the studio.

"The appearance of the facades varies according to the seasons, the incidence of sunlight and the growth of the plants," Stefano Boeri Architetti added.

"This is a real urban ecosystem, a haven for the biodiversity of living species and in particular of the birds that populate the Dutch skies and find shelter in the circular holes created specifically in the facades."

A centralised station equipped with sensors is able to monitor and control the irrigation system for the tower's planters, as well as knowing when to schedule "pruning interventions" for the plants.

Beneath the building, a water storage system allows for the collection, recovery and disposal of rainwater.

Stefano Boeri Architetti's first Vertical Forest tower was recently highlighted in Dezeen's round-up of the most significant buildings of the 21st century.

Wonderwoods is also the second example of the type to be built in the Netherlands, following the completion in 2021 of the studio's Trudo Vertical Forest, an 18-storey social housing tower in Eindhoven.

Alongside its Vertical Forest projects, Stefano Boeri Architetti recently completed the low-rise Palazzo Verde housing block in Antwerp, Belgium, with a stepped form creating numerous terraces planted with trees and shrubs.

The photography is by Milan Hofmans unless otherwise stated.

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