Stefano Boeri has collaborated with Timberland to create a tree-filled pavilion that floats on the waters of Milan’s Darsena to highlight the importance of urban greening in the fight against climate change.
Boeri and his team were commissioned by Timberland to design an installation for Milan’s Salone del Mobile design festival that would educate the public about the importance of regenerative materials and practices.
The resulting “Floating Forest” installation includes over 600 plants and 30 species, each of which has been researched and chosen for its environmental benefits when used in urban settings.
“This Floating Forest is a green graft in the heart of Milan, an ecosystem with a very high variety of species, capable of multiplying natural biodiversity that will activate environmental benefits associated with urban forestry also in connection with other green spaces in the city,” Boeri said.
There are two entrances to the pavilion from the canal side. Pathways lead visitors around the ‘forest’ on the inside, with information about Timberland’s own sustainability efforts sprinkled throughout. The scents of the chosen flora and fauna are present and within touching distance of the visitors.
The path through the installation, which is designed to be multisensory, stops at four fundamental points related to different senses, allowing visitors to learn more through virtual reality experiences.
The “Timberloop Take Back Program,” which encourages customers to return worn products to be repaired for resale or disassembled for reuse and recycling, is featured in Experience 01 of the show. The brand’s GreenStride soles, which are made from 75 percent renewable sugar cane and rubber from trees, are featured in Experience 02, which is dedicated to them.
Experience 03 looks beyond the brand and into the city, explaining the positive impact that nature can have on the Milanese environment through augmented reality interventions. All of the trees will be donated to a local nonprofit organization after the installation is dismantled, and the materials used to create it will be reused.
“The Floating Forest’s goal is not only to convey new forms of environmental responsibility and new ways of occupying and transforming urbanized spaces but to offer a place of intersection and reconciliation between the natural sphere and human beings,” said the brand.
As part of Milan Design Week, the Floating Forest will be open until June 12th. Film director Luca Guadagnino has unveiled a collection of furniture inside an installation inspired by the work of Italian architect Carlo Scarpa elsewhere in the city.
Milano Darsena
Viale Gabriele D’Annunzio 20
20123 Milano
