Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
Stefano Boeri Architetti won with the Hawthorn Tower, a new-generation Vertical Forest, the competition for the development of the Jaarbeursboulevard area, close to Utrecht Station, in Utrecht.
The project presented by the consortium of G&S Vastgoed and Kondor Wessels (VolkerWessels) Projecten consists in the construction of two high buildings, one designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti, that will overlook on Jaarbeursboulevard, and one designed by MVSA studio from Amsterdam.
The 90 mt in height tower designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti attempts to create, in Utrecht city center, an innovative experience of cohabitation between city and nature.
The Hawthorn Tower will host on its façades around 10,000 plants of different species (360 trees, 9,640 of shrubs and flowers), equal to 1 ha of woods.
Once realized, the Hawthorn Tower will contribute to absorb more than 5,4 tons of CO2. On the ground floor, directly connected to the roof garden on the sixth floor, the Tower will host the Vertical Forest Hub, a research centre on urban forestation worldwide. An open space where it will be possible to know the technical and botanic solutions chosen for the Tower and to follow the progress of other Vertical Forests under construction in the world.
Thanks to the ground floor, open to the district, the Tower designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti is a smart building that dialogs with the surrounding city. Its height and set back follows and enhances the dimensions of the plot between Croeselaan and Jaarbeursboulevard. Offices, fitness and yoga areas, bike parking places and a public leisure space: the Hawthorn Tower proposes itself as the new healty centre of Utrecht.
The Hawthorn Tower will be, therefore, a real urban ecosystem, hosting over 30 different vegetal species.
Located in the heart of Europe, the Utrecht Vertical Forest follows the other urban forestation projects promoted and designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti. Among them: Tower of Cedars in Lausanne, Vertical Forest in Nanjing and other green buildings planned in Paris, Tirana and Shanghai.
The construction will begin within 2019 to be finished by 2022.