"An urban ecosystem in which the city intertwines with nature to act as a single organism”. It is the idea behind "Smart Forest City", a huge botanical garden inside a contemporary city, which imagines a better future for the metropolis of the world.

The prototype of this "green and smart" metropolis, designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti, is Cancun, Mexico. The project will be realized in collaboration with Grupo Karim's, a company specializing in the real estate sector; it will rise in an area that had been previously destined for a shopping center, south of the Mexican city near the airport, and it will occupy an area of 557 hectares.

Basically, the "Smart Forest City" will stand as the first "forest city" of the new millennium, with a view to setting up 400 hectares of green surface with 7,500,000 specimens of plants and trees, about 2.3 trees per inhabitant. The metropolis is expected to be able to absorb 116,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.

In the words of Boeri: "A botanical garden, inside a contemporary city, based on the Mayan heritage and on its relationships with the natural and sacred world”. The design of spaces is thought to alternate built and natural surfaces, thanks to the realization of large parks, garden roofs and green facades. An international "open city", inspired by values as technological innovation and environmental quality, that sees its development also in scientific research. The city will be a pole of global interest, which will accommodate university departments, organizations, laboratories and companies, interested in the future of the planet. Inside it, also research and development centers will be born, intended for students and researchers from all over the world.

The "Smart Forest City" was designed to be a self-sufficient settlement in terms of both energy and feed. The circular economy will be improved by the presence of solar panels and the farmland will be watered by a water system that will surround the entire plot. The internal mobility system, electric and semi-automatic, will also be very special. Residents and visitors will leave every combustion vehicle at the edge of the city. The "Smart Forest City" will be able to accommodate 130,000 inhabitants. Last spring, the concept plan was introduced to the institutions and it is now pending approval. The project is part of a wave of new "smart cities", proposed for different areas throughout North America.