The Italian architect and ‘vertical forest’ pioneer Stefano Boeri has overseen the start of construction on his vast masterplan for Liuzhou Forest City in China; a metropolis where every building – from houses and hotels to restaurants and the railway station – will be entirely covered by plants and trees.

The green city, designed to fight pollution through design, is the first of its kind in the country. It will be located on a 175 hectares site in the mountain area of Guangxi, southern China, and linked to neighbouring towns through a futuristic rail network.

When finished in 2020, it is designed to host 30,000 people, absorb almost 10,000 tons of CO2 and 57 tons of pollutants per year and produce approximately 900 tons of oxygen.

Solar panels over the rooftops will generate renewable energy, while interior air-conditioning will be powered by geothermal energy.

In total, Liuzhou Forest City will host 40,000 trees and almost one million plants of over 100 species. The diffusion of flora and fauna in parks, gardens, streets and all over the building facades will decrease the average air temperature, create noise barriers and improve the biodiversity of living species.

“For the first time in China and in the world, an innovative urban settlement will combine the challenge for energy self-sufficiency and for the use of renewable energy with the challenge to increase biodiversity and to effectively reduce air pollution in urban areas, said Boeri. “We’ll achieve this through the multiplication of vegetable and biological urban surfaces. This is really critical for present-day China.”

Boeri is best known for his Vertical Forest towers in Milan, and is currently working on similar projects in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Nanjing. In the latter, he has designed a tower complex covered by 1,100 trees and 2,500 cascading plants to house a museum, a green architecture school and a Hyatt hotel.