Milan Vertical Forest Residential Towers Getting Accolades For Pollution Reducing Eco-Design
January 26, 2015 Kyriaki (Sandy) Venetis Stefano Boeri, architect of the newly completed Bosco Verticale Towers in Milan, is receiving a lot international attention for a living-green design that’s expected to create a healthier environment for both the two towers’ residents and the city as a whole.
Bosco Verticale Towers in Milan. Photo courtesy of Plascon Trends.
While Milan is known for being one of the most elite fashion capitals in the world, it also has a less flattering reputation for being one of the most polluted cities as well.
As TIME Magazine put it, Milan is a traffic-heavy city with “toxic smog that is so bad that some reports have pegged the city as the pollution capital of Europe.” The magazine profiled the project, calling it “an experiment of cohabitation between trees and people,” and hopes the new towers are a beginning step toward measures to improve the air quality in the city.
Designboom Architecture eloquently describes the towers, saying the facades are lined with staggered concrete balconies which have become planting boxes for the various trees, shrubs, and plants.
The towers, reaching a height of 367 ft. and 262 ft. respectively, feature a combined 800 trees, as well as about 4,000 shrubs and 14,000 plants.
Designboom describes some of the benefits this green design, saying each apartment has “a personal garden which buffers the interior spaces from acoustic pollution, dust particles, harsh winds, and direct sunlight.”