Wow! Forests are going vertical in Milan. Boeri Studio architects Stefano Boeri, Gianandrea Barreca, and Giovanni La Varra, designed the project. The firm describes the project by stating –

Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) is a project for metropolitan reforestation that contributes to the regeneration of the environment and urban biodiversity without the implication of expanding the city upon the territory. Bosco Verticale is a model of vertical densification of nature within the city. It is a model that operates correlated to the policies for reforestation and naturalization of the large urban and metropolitan borders (Metrosbosco). Metrobosco and Bosco Verticale are devices for the environmental survival of contemporary European cities. Together they create two modes of building links between nature and city within the territory and within the cities of contemporary Europe.

The first example of a Bosco Verticale composed of two residential towers of 110 and 76 meters height, will be realized in the centre of Milan, on the edge of the Isola neighbourhood, and will host 900 trees (each measuring 3, 6 or 9 m tall) apart from a wide range of shrubs and floral plants.

On flat land, each Bosco Verticale equals, in amount of trees, an area equal to 10.000 sqm of forest. In terms of urban densification the equivalent of an area of single family dwellings of nearly 50.000 sqm.

The Bosco Verticale is a system that optimizes, recuperates and produces energy. The Bosco Verticale aids in the creation of a microclimate and in filtering the dust particles contained in the urban environment. The diversity of the plants and their characteristics produce humidity, absorb CO2 and dust particles, producing oxygen and protect from radiation and acoustic pollution, improving the quality of living spaces and saving energy. Plant irrigation will be produced to great extent through the filtering and reuse of the grey waters produced by the building. Additionally Aeolian and photovoltaic energy systems will contribute, together with the aforementioned microclimate to increase the degree of energetic self sufficiency of the two towers. The management and maintenance of the Bosco Verticale’s vegetation will be centralised and entrusted to an agency with an office counter open to the public.

More from Der Spiegel International –

In densely populated cities, finding a patch of green can be a challenge. But by the end of this year in Milan, all residents will have to do is look up. Way up.

The Vertical Forest, two towers currently under construction in Italy’s second-largest city, won’t be the modern standard of urban housing, characterized by concrete, steel and glass. Instead, the residential buildings in the central Isola district will be covered in vegetation — 730 trees, 5,000 shrubs and 11,000 plants, to be exact.

Bosco Verticale, as the €65 million ($85 million) project is called in Italian, will be the world’s “first example” of a vertical forest, according to Stefano Boeri, Gianandrea Barreca, and Giovanni La Varra, the architects who designed the project for the firm Boeri Studio.

In addition to being pleasant to behold, the two towers will help purify the city air, increase bio-diversity and protect residents from the sun and noise pollution, they say. At 80 meters and 112 meters (262 feet and 367 feet) tall, they are also an “anti-sprawl measure.”

According to Boeri Studio, the vegetation on the buildings will be equal to a hectare of forest, serving as an “ecology billboard.”

Tree-planting recently began on the structures, but not before the architects spent some two years working with botanists to determine which varieties and sizes would best suit their purpose. Once the project is finished later this year, they will be watered mainly with gray water produced by residents, and tree care will be managed by building staff at the towers, which are part of a larger urban renewal and development project called Porta Nuova.

Read more and see the photo’s by clicking http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/milan-architects-build-vertical-forest-apartment-towers-a-886153.html