Known for inventing the Vertical Forest, a new model of living with trees in high-rise buildings, Milanese architect and urban planner Stefano Boeri discusses the importance of forging an alliance between nature and the city and redefining the relationship between humans and other living species.

When did you realize you wanted to be an architect?

I have the memory of a moment when I was 17 and I was with my mother visiting an amazing piece of architecture, the Salk Institute, designed by Louis Kahn in La Jolla in San Diego, California. I remember that I was extremely surprised and attracted by this amazing development nearby the ocean, but not facing it.