Green Building (and Vertical Forest) of the Week: Bosco Verticale in Milan

Bosco Verticale, appropriately translated to "Vertical Forest," is a development of two vertical residential towers in Milan, Italy, which represent the cutting edge of green building and urban forestry. With almost 20,000 trees and plants on the building's exteriors equalling almost 2.5 acres of vegetation, the buildings' systems of vertical forest increase biodiversity, create a microclimate for the building, produce humidity, absorb greenhouse gases, and produce oxygen. The trees even act as a sound barrier for residents. Bosco Verticale was built as a part of a $2.5 billion public and private redevelopment project for Milan's Porto Nuova district. The buildings were the focus of ARUP's 2013 International Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH Seed Funding Initiative, through which Dr. Elena Giacomello monitored the vegetation and tracked data in support of a new framework for the green design of tall buildings. The findings were publishedin Vertical Greenery: Evaluating the High-Rise Vegetation of the Bosco Verticale, Milan. Upon Accepting the CTBUH Awards' 2015 Award for the Best Tall Building Worldwide, Stefano Boeri, Founding Partner of Boeri Studio Architteti Steafon Boeri, shared this wisdom: "Yesterday I was giving a lecture here [at IIT], and it was very strange because the subject of the lecture was failures. I was trying to think about why architects are not used to talking about their failures - we prefer to hide, to remove our flubs, our fiascos, and our failures. Honestly, the reason we were able to do the Bosco Verticale was because we were able to learn from failures . . . and what I hope is that other attempts will learn from the mistakes we made with the Bosco Verticale." http://www.stefanoboeriarchitetti.net/en/portfolios/bosco-verticale/ http://www.worldpropertyjournal.com/real-estate-news/italy/milan/bosco-verticale-council-on-tall-buildings-and-urban-habitat-ctbuh-one-world-trade-center-capitagreen-burj-mohammed-bin-rashid-tower-2015-best-tall-building-worldwide-9502.php http://inhabitat.com/bosco-verticale-worlds-first-vertical-forest-is-finally-complete-in-milan/ Editor's note: It's fun to recognize Bosco Veticale as a Green Building of the Week partly because I (Allison) got to see these amazing buildings in purpose last summer. And they are amazing as they look. (see our Facebook post for pics).