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AS BALCONIES BRISTLE with tree branches and sunshine dapples the leaves of thousands of plants, two apartment buildings in the heart of Milan have almost disappeared under layers of lush forest.
The brainchild of Milanese architect Stefano Boeri, the Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) uses more than 20,000 trees and plants to adorn the high-rise buildings from top to bottom – a project now being exported all over the world, from China to the Netherlands.
The two original leafy towers dominate the skyline in the northern Italian city, giving residents – including celebrities like footballer Ivan Perisic – an enviable view over the new district of Porta Nuova and beyond.
Cherry, apple and olive trees spill over balconies alongside beeches and larches, selected and positioned according to their resistance to wind and preference for sunlight or humidity.
Boeri said the idea came from his obsession with trees and determination to make them “an essential component of architecture”, particularly as a weapon to combat climate change.
“I was in Dubai in 2007 and I watched this city growing in the middle of the desert, with more than 200 glass towers multiplying the effect of heat,” he recalls.
He wanted instead to create something that “as well as welcoming life, can contribute to reducing pollution, because trees absorb microparticles and CO2″.
“Cities now produce about 75% of the CO2 present in the atmosphere. Bringing more trees into the city means fighting the enemy on the spot,” he said.
‘Best Tall Building Worldwide’
Opened in 2014, the Vertical Forest won the prestigious Frankfurt International Highrise Award, and the Chicago Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat named it Best Tall Building Worldwide.
“It’s a unique thing to live here, we’re in direct contact with the plants while being in the city centre and in a super modern skyscraper,” says Simona Pizzi, who can see the mountains from her 14th floor apartment.
“The plants have developed a lot over the past three years, and we see them changing with the seasons,” adds the proud owner of an apple tree, where the white flowers contrast magnificently with the green foliage.
Boeri worked closely with botanists to create a nursery of a thousand trees that have been trained to grow under specific conditions.
The team faced numerous challenges, from how the balconies should be structured to take the weight of the plants, to how to secure the tree roots and what needed to go into the soil.
They even carried out resistance tests at a hurricane centre in Miami.
“For every human being living in the building, there are about two trees, 10 shrubs and 40 plants,” Boeri said.
The future of housing?
The vegetation soon transformed into a veritable wildlife park: 9,000 ladybirds brought over from Germany to eat parasites – to leave the plants pesticide free – multiplied over the space of a few weeks.
“The extraordinary thing that we did not expect was the incredible amount of birds that nested here. We have small hawks on the roofs, and swifts that had previously disappeared from Milan,” Boeri said.
The architect and his team are now working on a dozen or so Vertical Forest projects around the world, including Lausanne in Switzerland, Utrecht in the Netherlands, Sao Paolo in Brazil and Tirana in Albania.
The aim in Eindhoven in the Netherlands is to swap the sort of luxury pads seen in the Milan project – which go for some €11,000 euros per square metre – for social housing, a project Boeri says he’s particularly keen on.
And because the cost of the trees is low, it’s not an unreasonable ambition, he says.
He is also thinking big in China, where not only are two towers under construction in Nanjing and a hotel in the works in Shanghai, but there are plans for a ‘Forest City’ of 200 buildings in Liuzhou.
“China is now realising it faces the dramatic problem of air pollution, but also of uncontrolled urbanisation, with cities growing out of suburbs, creating megacities,” he said.
“Every year fifteen million peasants abandon the countryside to come to the city, we have to come up with some answers, with new green cities,” says Boeri, who took part in the COP21 conference on climate change in Paris in 2015.
The architect has not patented the Vertical Forest and has even written a book revealing the secrets and techniques behind it, which he hopes will encourage a new, greener way of developing cities.
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Where’s the natural light, you’d need the lights on all day using more electricity and creating more CO2
@Ian James Burgess: Its milan, not ireland. They use the AC more than heating. So more shade is welcome.
@Ian James Burgess: solar panels? No idea how it works but it sounds fascinating.
@Ian James Burgess: there’s always a grump
@Ian James Burgess: The vertical garden on the facade of the Raval theatre in Barcelona uses the eco.bin system which is self sufficient by harvesting rainwater and using solar panels, the jardi tarradellas also in Barcelona is really beautiful.
@Andy K: Inter are better than AC
@Andy K: AC Milan??
Surely after a while the roots are going to cause havoc with the building?
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: exactly what I was thinking. I’d love to know what materials and techniques they used to prevent this from happening.
@⚡ Seánie ⚡: The plants and trees used are specifically cultivated to be grown in this environment, more info from the architect here https://www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/en/portfolios/vertical-forest/
Not sure I would like to be hit with a large apple that fell 20 stories!
Surely that’s a big fire hazard if it goes up on fire similar to grenfell tower??
I might be wrong on this but is wood not a fire hazard?
@Erich Butler: Dry, aged wood
Fir hazard?
Housing problem solved.
It must be expensive to water and feed these plant’s
@FlopFlipU: rain
@FlopFlipU: Brown water system? Collected rain water?
How did they deal with roots from the trees potentially damaging the building structure? Probably a stupid question but genuine.
Is that not a fire hazard waiting to happen
We all admire or loath bonsai , thus they can use similar techniques , today plus building materials are also evolving … .it looks lovely and in many cities they now have Green walls planted this is next stop , where usually you had one gardener who filled they balcony with plants now the industry is getting on with lowering the pollution levels .. I’m sure the Gardens of Babylon were the first ….
Some say they could blow over in a strong, but who is to say there’ll even be a strong wind?
Takes the concept of a tree house to an entirely new level.
Never mind fire hazards and tree root, what about all the feckin bugs….uugh!
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