Nice Read - Why Milan is covering its skyscrapers in plants

[malaise]

http://www.bbc.com/travel/gallery/20170925-why-milan-is-covering-its-skyscrapers-in-plants
<snip>
Italy’s second biggest city is reinventing itself, with a shining horizon of brand-new skyscrapers dramatically changing the face of Milan. This architectural makeover is not just about urban sprawl, though – it involves plant-covered buildings, rooftop gardens and innovative parks.

The heart of this renovation is the Isola (Island) district – an apt name considering that the area has long been isolated from the rest of the city, bordered by the train tracks of the Garibaldi station to the south and the Viale Zara tramway to the north. Today, pastel-coloured palazzi stand side by side with the skyscrapers of Porta Nuova, the city’s new business district adjacent to Isola, which is towered over by the gleaming pinnacle of the Unicredit Tower, Italy’s tallest building.

The two plant-covered towers of the Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest) by starchitect Stefano Boeri stand out in this new Manhattan-like skyline. The idea behind this skyward forest is as simple as it is innovative: giving back to nature the space urbanisation is taking from it. Hosting about 800 trees and 15,000 plants, the vegetation covering both towers is equivalent to a 20,000sqm forest.

The sustainable residential buildings contribute to the construction of a microclimate, producing humidity, absorbing CO2 and dust particles and giving oxygen in return. It’s also home to a variety of birds, butterflies and other insects, and has become a natural magnet for a spontaneous recolonisation of the city.

When the project was completed in 2014, Boeri’s visionary idea still seemed a radical one. Three years on, Studio Boeri has commissions around the world, currently working on different woodland projects in China, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

[BigmanPigman]

1. Wow, the photo is wonderful...very nice

work. Form and function (and attractive)

[First Speaker]

2. What a wonderful idea! If only every city in the world did this...

...this gives me hope. There are people in the world thinking, working, reacting, as if we were a sane species. Maybe the idea will spread... ... Incidentally--this is a (little) off the topic--but if Phoenix, say, did this--would it help ameliorate their heat, even a little? And has anyone suggested that they actually do it?

[malaise]

3. I have read of vegetable gardens in some of these spaces

in the US. Folks here at DU have posted about this.

[guillaumeb]

4. Chicago also has many green roofs among city owned and private owned buildings.

Recommended.

[Greywing]

5. Denver (Colorado) has a green roof initiative on the ballot for November 7th

The ballot measure would require most new buildings of at least 25,000 square feet to have gardens, solar panels or other “green roof” components cover at least 20 percent of their roofs’ surface.

This is so exciting to me! I really hope it passes!

Just FYI for fellow Denverites in Denver County, it will be on the ballot as I-300

[malaise]

6. Very cool

Did not know that

[Grammy23]

7. Interesting article. Loved the pictures.

We visited Milan in 2002 for a short time....flying home from there so not too much time to explore. Maybe one of these days we’ll get back.

[malaise]

8. The photos are stunning

Loved the lavender one - loved them all

[msongs]

9. good news. singapore is also doing the same with much taller buildings nt