Wüstenschiff

A 'green lung' in the desert of Cairo will be built in the new Egyptian administrative capital, 45 km from the city center, thanks to an agreement signed by Egyptian real estate company Mirs Italia Properties and Italian architect Stefano Boeri. Boeri is the architect who created the vertical forest, an innovative, award-winning project of Porta Nuova in Milan. The new urban settlement in Cairo (with an investment of Misr Italia of 16 billion of Egyptian pounds, or some 900 million euros) is based on the principles of energetic and environmental sustainability. It provides, in the northern part, for the construction of three towers of seven floors for an altitude of 30 meters, in which nature and architecture become one. The three vertical forests in New Cairo (worth some 164 million euros), the first green project in the region of the Middle East and North Africa, have been designed by Boeri with Egyptian designer Shimaa Shalash in cooperation with landscape agronomist Laura Gatti for Misr Italia Properties [...] According to the architect, ''there are many ways to make the city green, this vertical forest is a less expensive and faster way of dealing with climate change. The objective of the vertical forest is to limit pollution. These are small efforts but they are very important. And making people plant trees is the best way to involve them''.