In a world full of tall multi-storey buildings, growing population and high level of pollution due to automobiles and industrial emissions, a breath of fresh air is as rare as hens’ teeth. Sadly, we humans have degraded the environment beyond repair. With forests getting destroyed at a rate equivalent to 43 soccer fields per hour, we are trading these life-giving Oxygen sources for avaricious luxuries.
You must be wondering how this relates to “Bosco Verticale”. Well, In order to cope with adequate availability of fresh air and revitalize the local biodiversity in the future, architects are now designing ‘Vertical forests’ that will serve as residential or commercial buildings while adding to the beauty of the city simultaneously.
Bosco Verticale is such a pair of award-winning residential towers in the Porta Nuova district of Milan, Italy. Officially opened in October 2014, Bosco Verticale is the proud winner of the International High-rise Award, a prestigious award honouring excellence in recently constructed buildings that stand a minimum of 100 meters tall. It was also declared as the “2015 Best Tall Building Worldwide” at the 14th International Best Tall Building Awards.
It is called Bosco Verticale as each tower houses trees between three to six meters which helps in the production of oxygen and mitigation of smog. They also moderate temperatures in the building in the winters and summers. The vegetal system of the Vertical Forest aids in the construction of a microclimate, attenuation of noise, production of humidity, absorption of CO2 and dust particles and oxygen production.
China’s Nanjing city is soon going to be the first Asian city to get a vertical forest designed by the same Italian architect, Stefano Boeri. The towers will house 1100 trees and 2500 shrubs from 23 local species and will produce about 60 Kilos of Oxygen every day! The construction of the towers will be finished by 2018.
With the growing pollution levels in India, we too need architectural wonders like these.
