New Growth For Italian Design
When it comes to fashion, where Milan leads, the world follows. But as the Bosco Verticale (or the ‘Vertical Forest’) nears completion, the world could soon be following in the footsteps of Milan’s architecture and horticultural ingenuity. Imagine two residential towers filled with as many trees that could be planted in one hectare throughout each building, and you have a project that has gone from a simple apartment block to an exemplary piece of biological architecture . . .
Reaching 80 and 112 metres respectively, each tower will feature a mixture of large and small trees planted on balconies around all four sides. It will be accompanied by 5,000 shrubs and 11,000 floral plants in the hope of building a micro-climate for wildlife and filter dust particles which are present in the urban environment. When fully grown, such diverse vegetation will create a living, thriving façade that uses the changing shape and form of leaves for its façade.
According to the project’s designer Stefano Boeri, Bosco Verticale is an anti-sprawl measure which aims to control and reduce urban expansion. The creation of a number of vertical forests in the city will be able to create a network of environmental corridors which will give life to the main parks in the city.
If you think of them in terms of urban densification, each tower of the Bosco Verticale is equivalent to an area of family houses and buildings of up to 50,000 square metres. The towers are the first example of vertical forests to be completed, and forms part of a larger redevelopment project in the city. We think it is a great start.