Milano, Italy
Stefano Boeri and his design team unveil their multisensory installation, Floating Forest, designed for Timberland, showcasing the company’s mission to inspire and equip a new generation for a better and more sustainable future.
Floating Forest has recently been awarded a 2023 Green Good Design Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The purpose of the Floating Forest project is to connect the brand’s role and its connection to nature and its aim to create a greener and more equitable and sustainable future, along with the concept of circularity, where nothing goes to waste.
The project emphasizes also to the brand’s commitment to being a force for social and environmental good not only by promoting the re-greening of urban areas but also by highlighting the latest in eco-innovative products.
“Urban greening is a fundamental step in combatting the effects of climate change and improving citizens’ quality of life,” say Stefano Boeri Interiors.
“To this end, cities need to be greener: an urban forest can serve as an opportunity to improve the health of the environment and restore biodiversity to leave a legacy for future generations.”
This floating installation, created as an independent ecosystem on the waters of the Darsena in Milan, emerges as a striking element in the urban landscape that attracts visitors’ attention to the city.
The main goal “is not only to convey new forms of environmental responsibility and new ways of occupying and transforming urbanized spaces but to offer a place of intersection and reconciliation between the natural sphere and human beings,” states the studio.
The installation consists of 610 plants and 30 species that multiply biodiversity and activate environmental benefits related to urban forestry, in connection with other green spaces in Milan and exists as an independent ecosystem
“The forest offers not only an environment where you can rediscover the importance of biodiversity and the benefits of nature but also a fully immersive experience, both physical and virtual, that through the scent of the flowers and the tactile qualities of the chosen species, involves all the senses,” adds the studio.
Floating Forest includes a range of trees, such as maple trees, birch, and apple, will be present, as well as bushes such as the aronia berries, hydrangea, mahonia and pittosporum, and perennial grasses such as stipa, eulalia, anemone, daylilly, purple verbena, and pampas.
As the installation is interactive, the path that passes through will have four fundamental points related to different senses and will lead visitors to interact with the latest ecological product innovations and the brand values.
The installation incorporates sensory elements both through an on-site digital experience, and online for those unable to attend the Fuorisalone event.
The office states that “the project also aims to leave a legacy for the city, in support of the local community: all the trees that make up the forest will later be donated to Soulfood Forestfarms Hub Italia, a nonprofit organization facilitating the ecological transition of territories together with local communities̀, institutions, and businesses.”
All materials that compose the installation are deliberately dry assembled. This technique allows great flexibility during the assembly and reassembly phases, as well as the reuse of individual elements once the installation will be dismissed.
Project: Floating Forest
Architects: Stefano Boeri Interiors
Lead Architects: Stefano Boeri and Giorgio Donà
Client: Timberland Italy srl.
Photographers: Daniela Di Corleto
