Utrecht, The Netherlands
The Wonderwoods project with its 2 towers (the Vertical Forest designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti is connected by a bridge to the other building designed by MVSA Architects) will be a green oasis in the recently developed Beurskwartier area in Utrecht. Wonderwoods Vertical Forest is a declination of the Milan Vertical Forest, 105 meters high and able to accommodate about 200 apartments of types for different users. The project aims to create an advanced experience of cohabitation between city and living nature in the city center, as part of the new Healthy Urban Quarter: the facades of the tower will host about 50,000 plants – equivalent to the vegetation found in 1 hectare of forest – enhancing biodiversity and providing a liveable habitat for citizens as well as for other species.
Wonderwoods by Stefano Boeri Architetti, won an 2025 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
Wonderwoods Vertical Forest is an urban tower respecting and enhancing the characteristics of the neighborhood between Croeselaan Street and Jaarbeursboulevard. It is a multilayered urban ecosystem, a safeguard for the biodiversity of living species and especially for the birds that populate the Dutch skies, which will find shelter in the circular holes specifically created in the facades for their nesting. The building’s rotation and structure, allowing it to be laid out according to an east/west orientation, responding Utrecht’s urban context. The mixed-use building opens to all the citizens, making this a new type of architecture that is increasingly integrated with the urban fabric.
The Wonderwoods Vertical Forest contributes to air purification, producing about 41 tons of oxygen, absorbing approximately 5.4 tons of CO2 annually and enhancing biodiversity. The project’s orientation maximizes natural light for reduced energy consumption. Thanks to the filtering effect of the leaves, the microclimate produced on the terraces will reduce the temperature variation between the outside and the inside of the apartments with a proportional reduction in air conditioning energy costs. A sensor-controlled irrigation system ensures efficient plant maintenance, allowing rainwater to be collected, reclaimed and disposed of. It was the best Mixed-Use project in the Netherlands by the European Property Awards in 2021 and the winner of the 2019 MIPIM/AR Future Project Awards.
Created using prefabrication techniques for the facades and the balcony system, the Wonderwoods Vertical Forest reveals a complex and multifaceted nature and a new approach in contemporary European architecture. The project enriched with office areas, spaces for fitness and sports activities, bicycle parking and public and recreational spaces, the project is designed as the new wellness hub in Utrecht. As a form of living architecture, the project has facades which house 360 trees and 9,640 shrubs and flowers from 30 different species and will change both in colour and the denseness of the vegetation which will vary according to the seasons as well as depending on the amount of sunlight, growth and maintenance of the plants.
The building is not only a model of biodiversity for living species, but also an ensemble of activities and functions. The base of the tower is intended to host a carefully laid out system of duplex residences able to combine residential spaces and ateliers which will occupy the south-western sides up to the fifth floor; a number of hospitality, public and commercial spaces on Croeselaan, Jaarbeursboulevard and Veemarktple Streets will be added to these. In scientific and cultural terms, the Wonderwoods Vertical Forest can be seen as an important experiment on one side integrating urban forestry in contemporary cities and on the other side combining residential areas with facilities and mixes functions in an innovative urban tower.
Architects: Stefano Boeri Architetti (Wonderwoods Vertical Forest) and MVSA Architects BV (Plot B)
Lead Architects for Stefano Boeri Architetti: Stefano Boeri, Francesca Cesa Bianchi (Partner in charge), Paolo Russo (Project Leader)
Design Team: Daniele Barillari, Francesca Da Pozzo, Alberto Lunardi, Maddalena Maraffi, Giovanni Nardi, Federico Panella, Emiliano Berni, Carolina Boccella, Elisa Borghi, Agostino Bucci, Gianni Candasamy, Marco Neri, Lorenzo Masotto, Yulia Filatova, and Benedetta Cremaschi
