Stefano Boeri Architetti have won a competition organised by the Utrecht city municipality for the construction of a landmark building adopting their famous ‘Vertical Forest’ model.

Designed to anchor a new urban district close to the city’s station, the “next generation” Hawthorn Tower will "attempt to create, in Utrecht city centre, an innovative experience of cohabitation between city and nature."

The 90m structure will host on its façades around 10,000 plants of different species, including 360 trees and 9,64 shrubs and flowers – equivalent to 1 hectare of woodland. Once realised, the architects claim it will absorb more than 5.4 tons of CO2.

The building will feature a restaurant, health club, yoga studio, and public leisure spaces in addition to offices. On the ground floor, directly connected to a sixth-floor roof garden there will be a Vertical Forest Hub. This will be a research centre on urban forestation worldwide, explaining the technical and botanical solutions chosen for the Hawthorn Tower and others under construction around the world.

The project is being developed by a consortium of real estate firms G&S Vastgoed and Kondor Wessels (VolkerWessels). A neighbouring tower, designed by Amsterdam's MVSA studio, also forms part of the development.

Stefano Boeri's practice have worked on several 'Vertical Forest' towers, but this is their first in the Netherlands. They have worked on projects in Lausanne and Milan, and are developing forest towers and cities in Nanjing, Paris, Tirana, Shanghai and Liuzhou.

Construction in Utrecht will begin in 2019 and be finished by 2022.