A vertical forest is expected to be completed this year in Milan. There are two tower apartment complexes which contain a total of 400 residential units. The facade of the buildings will be covered with 730 trees, 5,000 shrubs, and 11,000 perennial plants. It is expected to have the same ecological impact as 10,000 square meters of forest.
Aside from fighting smog and producing oxygen, the foliage is expected to provide insulation to the residential units.
It’ll be really cool to see how these trees grow in order to maximize access to sun, water, and nutrients. Also, a step towards a sci-fi solar punk future – I’m in.
I sure hope the structural engineers planned for the buildings to increase in mass as the trees grow.
Well, or else for maintenance labor to keep the trees rigorously trimmed to prevent too much increase in mass. Or both? (The wikipedia article says the engineering team consulted botanists and horticulturists in planning how much weight the buildings could bear, so it seems likely that the fact that trees grow would have come up.)
This is a pretty cool idea regardless and I hope they get it right. I wonder if anyone will do anything like this in New York.
This falls in the “I really hope they do it but I’ll believe it when I see it” category for me.
It’s been up for 2 years, inaugurated in October 2014, and still going strong. It’s won multiple awards.
Here they are building it.
Bosco Gardeners hang around outside the building.
Change of Seasons…
And a view from the place itself.
It’s funny, I first made that original post on my other blog back in 2013. Amongst the comments were several talking about how people had tried and failed at this before, how they were skeptical, and how they’d believe it if they ever saw it.. At least a couple of comments were people “explaining” why it couldn’t be done.
And now, just look!
Just because something hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it can’t be. It just means you have a chance to be the first to do it.
Remember that. 💚
