YellowOffice designs forest-square for Milan's new BEIC library with a transplanted 110-ton plane tree

Francesca Benedetto's YellowOffice is designing the public square and park for the new BEIC central library in Milan, replacing the historic Palazzo Sormani. The project, developed with Baukuh and Onsitestudio, features a 'piazza-foresta' with 72 trees, 5,800 plants, and 1,200 seats on a 14,000 sqm site atop a railway station. A 20-meter-tall, 110-ton Platanus × acerifolia was transplanted 72 meters from Via Monte Ortigara to become the square's centerpiece, documented in the film 'The Flying Plane' commissioned by the City of Milan. The square includes 29 Ulmus 'Sapporo Autumn Gold' in custom circular planters with petal-shaped seating, a circular water mirror, and a green amphitheater with a drainage trench in Parco 8 Marzo. YellowOffice also designed the interior landscape with Trachycarpus fortunei in zinc-coated steel planters. The project uses the Stockholm Tree Pit Method for sustainable tree growth and low maintenance. Benedetto teaches at Harvard GSD and runs projects in Albania, Switzerland, Sweden, and the UK.