Eco-friendly apartment buildings in the downtown of Milan, Italy will feature hundreds of real trees planted on large balconies.
Designed by Italian architect Stefano Boeri, two residential towers will house more than 900 trees, 5,000 shrubs, and 11,000 plants.
Waterproof balconies filled with high quality soil will be equipped with automated plant watering system.
Bosco Verticale Towers will be completed by the end of 2013.
Also check out: Horizontal Building and Rock Climbing Building
Dhedy
Awesome
Apr 14th, 2013
smokie fox
My only problem with this is that when the trees grow to a certain height (especially on lower levels) the trees would likely have to be cut down. Also I wonder whether the building would be able to support the weight of a large tree, not to mention the effect tree roots would have on the stability of the structure. Despite this however, I love the idea and I think it would do wonders in creating urban green space and to help combat global warming.
Apr 15th, 2013
Pavel
I would like to live there.
Apr 15th, 2013
Jury
pots on the balcony – it’s kind of new. The big pots, is much more pots. Transition from quantity to quality. I doubt it.
Apr 15th, 2013
Matt
I love this! but like Smokie Fox I’m wondering how the building will cope with all that weight and the plant growth.
Get these over in London!
Apr 15th, 2013
Gert
I’m sure the engineers have taken the weight into account. I’m sure the landscapers have chosen slow growing and dwarf trees so excessive size is not an immediate issue.
I also know, as all gardeners know, that trees can be pruned just like any shrub to limit their size.
Now if only everyone thought about the fact that lots of other people know more than they do about what they are looking at.
Apr 15th, 2013
Dustin
They don’t look very nice in my eyes. All the shrubs and trees against the square edges of the balconies… I wonder if a less modern style of architecture would look better to me?
Apr 15th, 2013
fikus
maybe if tree roots have limited place to grow it would also limit grow of the tree.
Apr 15th, 2013
Bob
Now if people watched the video then all the questions and concerns would be answered…..lazy people
Apr 15th, 2013
Karen
This is actually pretty ingenius
Apr 15th, 2013
Antonio
why a vertical forest???? Go and live in the forest!!! I don’t see how it can be eco friendly, you going to need power to water the trees, and it´s not going to became eco supported system. It looks like a old idea in a new format, you substituted plants for trees….
Apr 16th, 2013
yesy
and Who will manage these trees?..
Nice design though
Apr 16th, 2013
Fillibert
These architects and engineers only think in 3D, they never take time into account. As a window cleaner I can tell you landscaping is my enemy #1. Makes windows inaccessible dirtier and trees block light.
I’m curious as to how much money they’ll dump into maintenance, both trees and building maintenance. The irrigation system will seep and leak creating ugly runs on the walls etc
Apr 17th, 2013
Carlos
I would definitely not want the beautiful Italian light blocked by a tree just in front of my window. I think the appartments will be very dark with such design. Nice from outside though.
Apr 17th, 2013
Ryyx
The real problem with this design would be wind. Tall buildings tend to have very strong winds at the upper stories, and trees don’t do well with high wind speeds (just think about the pictures you’ve seen of stunted, windblown trees growing on cliffs or mountains, or even on open plains where there is little to block the wind). Its a nice idea, but it will require using trees adapted for high winds, or a wind block to shelter the trees. Maybe the trees that are sheltered by other trees or parts of the building will be ok, but I don’t see this working out as well as they think it will.
Apr 17th, 2013
Ciaran
What dumb comments. Do you all think that these people studied for nothing. Of course they took all this into consideration….dah!!!!
Apr 18th, 2013
Carlos
Claran, if you have the chance watch the documentary “Koolhaas houselife” by Ila Beja and Louse Lemoine and you will see the difference between the planning on paper by someone who has studied (starchitect Rem Koolhaas) and the everyday reality of living in a “designers” place.
Apr 18th, 2013
Ciaran
Poor Carlos, I live in an apartment block similar to this in Brisbane, Australia. It does work, and the reenforcement in there to take the weight. It isn’t a problem, if done properly
Ciaran
Apr 19th, 2013
Carlos
Claran, yes I agree it works technically. There are many buildings in many places much more complicated than these ones from a technical point of view. I was not complaining at all about structural issues as other posts here. My concern is only about light in the appartments. To have a dense tree a couple of meters from your window blocks quite a lot of light. Is in that sense that I say that things in paper can look beautiful, but in practice pose some problems. Some people might like that. Personally, if I live in a high floor I would prefer to get light in and have a view of the city.
Apr 19th, 2013
Ciaran
Hi Carlos, yes I agree. Where I live, they got around that by using lots of glass in the other surrounding walls. We have no full walls at all. The effect is very good, no extra lighting time is required.
Ciaran
Apr 26th, 2013
Pete
I love how people here assume the architects/designers thought of everything. Repeat that each time you use something which doesn’t work as intended, or breaks. :)
I’m with the folks who have to wonder about this over time. Many designers don’t think long-term, just about the short term creative aspects that get them the attention.
Similarly, housing companies around where I live love to plant invasive fast-growing flowering pear trees because they look nice to prospective home buyers. However, they always split in the slightest snow or wind. Older developments which originally had them typically have mounds where trees used to be.
Back to this design. I really want to like this, but despite talking a good talk, I think this is doomed.
From inside the apartments, you’ll eventually end up looking at the dead side of the tree (the side which never gets any light). Either that or they’ll plant just bank lobby trees everywhere. The shaded areas of the concrete or other siding will mold/mildew due to never getting any light (I live on the woods and have to clean moss from my roof and all sorts of other things from my siding).
Long-term maintenance costs (either paid to the apartment service via higher rent, or required as part of your agreement) would eventually be very high in order to handle upkeep. Roots will get out and crack cement, you’ll get leaks, and given that the balconies appear to have a flush floor with the house, you’ll get interior damage.
Replacing dead trees on upper stories would be difficult unless replaced with saplings.
May 5th, 2013