In Shanghai, he directs the Future City Lab, a post-PhD research program anticipating the mutation of planetary metropolises, from the perspective of biodiversity and urban forestation, at Tongji University.
Thanks to its “Green Obsession” design approach, Stefano Boeri Architetti and his firm were awarded the UN SDGs Action Award in 2023 by the United Nations in the “Inspire” category because it “envisions sustainable cities and communities that prioritize health and well-being while intensifying climate action through its creative approach to urban planning, ecological connectivity and urban forestry - meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals.” Among the main actors in the climate change debate in the field of international architecture, at the UN Climate Action Summit 2019, he presented the Green Urban Oases project in New York, carried out together with FAO, C40 and other international research institutes and, in 2017, participates in the Commonwealth Regenerative Development to Reverse Climate Change program; he is co-chair and member of the scientific committee of the World Forum on Urban Forests (Mantua, 2018 - Washington DC, 2023).
In addition to being an architect, Stefano Boeri is known for his research, visions, and master plans on the future of the urban condition in the world, which have seen him involved in regeneration and development projects for metropolises and large cities, including Shanghai, São Paulo, Moscow, Geneva, Tirana, Eindhoven, Utrecht, Cancun, Riyadh, Cairo, and in Italy Milan, Genoa, Cagliari, Padua, Taranto, and many others.
His work is exhibited internationally,including Biennale di Venezia, Nederlands Instituut Architectuur, IFA Institut Français d'Architecturein Paris, Arc-en-Rêve Centre d'Architecture Bordeaux, Tokyo Art Gallery, Chengdu Biennale,Triennale di Milano, Beijing Design Week, Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, the Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, and the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Boeri is further exporting the Bosco Verticale model, which will also be materialized in Nanjing,[11] Utrecht,[12] Paris[13] and Eindhoven (in a social housing version).
Boeri has developed major waterfront redevelopment projects at the European level, including the ports of Marseille, Genoa, Thessaloniki, Mytilene, Naples, Trieste, and La Maddalena.
The project, originally conceived to host the 2009 G8, then moved to L'Aquila by the Berlusconi government, was completed in just 18 months and then seized following a scandallinked to bribery and illegitimate procurement.
In 1993, Boeri founded a research agency for territorial investigation based in Milan, called Multiplicity, concerned about contemporary urbanism, architecture, visual arts and general culture, through which he promoted research and exhibitions on the transformation of the inhabited territories that have been presented in many museums and exhibition venues and international universities.
To date, it has involved more than 60 speakers ranging between architects, artist, and photographers, among which are Renzo Piano, Rem Koolhaas, Elizabeth Diller, Steven Holl, and many others.
Famous was the last issue under his editorship, Esperanto, in which the magazine came out without texts, with a cover by Ettore Sottsass, drawings by Enzo Mari, and image contributions by Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Yona Friedman, Gaetano Pesce, Olafur Eliasson, Rem Koolhaas, Alessandro Mendini, and Gabriele Basilico.
In the work, Doing More with Less, Boeri proposes a new, more pragmatic political vision capable of interpreting the fundamental issues of contemporary living, from rights to participation, from culture to architecture.
Stefano Boeri Architetti is also promoting cultural events and its projects have been shown in international expositions as Venice Biennale, Beijing Design Week, Milan Furniture Fair, Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art and Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and published on international magazines such as: A+U, Domus, Abitare, AREA, ARCHIS, ICON, Lotus, 2G, MIT Press, Harvard Design Magazine, Financial Times, Elle, La Repubblica.
Stefano Boeri Architetti has recently completed the Vertical Forest, two sustainable residential towers based on urban biodiversity in Milan.
[16] Stefano Boeri Architetti is also curating Skolkovo innovation center in Moscow, together with Jean Pistre, Speech, David Chipperfield, Mohsen Mostafavi, Kazuyo Sejima, OMA, Herzog & de Meuron and it is developing the detailed masterplan of D4 district with the Moscow-based studio Project Meganom.
Stefano Boeri Architetti is also very active abroad, outside of Europe, specially in China with the headquarter in Shanghai the studio is developing projects as: The renovation of the former Shanghai Stock Exchange into a cultural exchange center, a mix-use development in Guizhou, in the 1000 Peaks Valley where a minimum standard of 8 sqm agriculture and greenery, together with 8 shrubs, 2 trees, 40 bushes, per inhabitant is inserted into the urban plan, of most interest is the project of the Liuzhou “Forest City”[17] recently presented at the Paris Climate Conference (COP21), a sustainable city of 30,000 inhabitants able to consume tons of CO2 and generate oxygen inserted in the region between Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, one of the most polluted regions in the world.
SBA was selected with three other teams by the Egyptian Government to propose a redesign (then not realized) the triangle of Maspero in the heart of downtown Cairo, along the Nile waterfront.