STEFANO BOERI

photo ©Giovanni Gastel

Italian architect, urban planner, and founding partner of Stefano Boeri Architetti

Stefano Boeri was born in Milan in 1956. In 1980, he graduated in architecture at Milan Politecnico and in 1989 he received his PhD from the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV). A full Professor of Urban Planning at Milan Politecnico, Boeri has been a guest professor at several universities, including Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD), the Strelka Institute in Moscow, the Berlage Institute in the Netherlands, and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He has been a designer and member of the Scientific Board at Skolkovo Innovation Center, a high-tech hub close to Moscow.

In 2008-09, as a member of the Architecture Council for Expo 2015, he designed the Masterplan for Expo 2015 in Milan with Jacques Herzog and Ricky Burdett. Councillor for Culture, Fashion and Design for the Municipality of Milan from 2011 to 2013 and from 2015 to 2018, he was a member of the scientific committee of the Uffizi Galleries in Florence. During the post-earthquake reconstruction work in Central Italy, Stefano Boeri was appointed Urban Planning Expert Consultant for post-earthquake reconstruction, extended to cover all areas of Central Italy affected by the 2016 earthquake. The appointment was made by the Extraordinary Government Commissioner for reconstruction and ended with the end of Vasco Errani’s mandate. Since February 2018, he has been President of La Triennale di Milano Foundation, one of Italy’s leading cultural institutions, active in the promotion and setting up of exhibitions, conferences, and events related to art, design, and architecture.

Stefano Boeri has been the curator of numerous international architecture exhibitions. 

As an architect and urban planner, Stefano Boeri founded Boeri Studio in 1999, together with Gianandrea Barreca and Giovanni La Varra, while 2011 saw the establishment of Stefano Boeri Architetti. In 2014, with Yibo Xu, he founded Stefano Boeri Architetti China, based in Shanghai. The work of the Stefano Boeri Architetti studio ranges from the production of urban visions and architecture to interior and product design, with constant focus on the geopolitical and environmental implications of urban phenomena.

In 2016, Stefano Boeri Architetti was appointed to take part in the reconstruction of the city centres of Amatrice and Norcia, struck by the earthquake. As part of the Amate Amatrice charity programme, the new Polo del Gusto di Amatrice and the Centro Polivalente e di Protezione Civile di Norcia were set up in record time: these two examples of architecture were designed as earthquake-proof civil protection constructions and sites for the relaunching of the economic and recreational activities and the area’s identifying character.

Attention to the relationship between city and nature led to the creation of the Milan Vertical Forest, the first prototype of a residential building, featuring over 700 trees and 20,000 plants and a model of urban forestation that considers vegetation as an essential element of architecture. Built in 2014, the Vertical Forest has received numerous international awards, such as the International Highrise Award (2014) and the Best Tall Building Worldwide, presented by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (2015). With the introduction of the concept of biodiversity in architecture, Stefano Boeri worked on the development of the Milan prototype until he presented the Città Foresta project at the COP21 International Climate Conference in Paris in 2015, becoming one of the main players in the debate on climate change in the field of international architecture.

Since 2020, Stefano Boeri has been the President of the Scientific Committee of Forestami, the project aimed at planting 3 million trees in the metropolitan area of Milan within 2030.