A fantastical sounding urban garden paradise imagined by Rotterdam-based MVRDV and made up of jasmine hotels, lily pond swimming pools, offices decked with planted interiors and bamboo parks, and an alphabetized plant library will be brought to reality over the next ten years in the city of Almere, Netherlands. Today, the Nederlandse Tuinbouwraad (NTR) chose MVRDV’s plan for Almere as the winner of the esteemed Floriade 2022 World Horticulture Expo, which takes place only once every ten years. The blanket of new city fabric draped over a 111-acre peninsula will transform it into a permanent green extension directly opposite Almere’s existing city center.

The venture will develop the waterfront site into a green urban neighborhood and a vast grid of gardens forming a living plant library where each block is dedicated to different, diverse plantings. A new university will be organized as a stacked botanical garden and vertical eco-system where every classroom will have a distinctive climate appropriate to the various plants.

MVRDV aims for the expo to demonstrate how plants can provide for and enhance all aspects of daily life. In doing so, the city hopes to boost its image as a self-sustainable and ecological center with the ability to generate its own food and energy, clean its own water, and to recycle its own waste. The peninsula will also accommodate a new panorama tower, hotel, marina, open-air theatre, camping facilities, and nearly 236,800 square-feet of green housing.