The innovative LEED Gold Bosco Verticale has elevated the definition of 'green skyscraper’ to a new level. Designed by Boeri Studio, the award-winning Vertical Forest is a model for a sustainable residential building, a project for metropolitan reforestation, contributing to the regeneration of the environment and urban biodiversity. Without the implication of expanding the city upon the territory, it is a model of vertical densification of nature within the city. Due to towering heights, terrace cantilevering, and heavy plantings, Arup performed geotechnical and structural engineering studies, including wind tunnel testing. Developed by Hines, the first example of the Vertical Forest consists of two residential towers of 110 and 76 m high, situated in the center of Milan. All of the plant species were carefully selected by agronomists Laura Gatti and Emanuela Borio.
The Bosco Verticale hosts 800 trees (each measuring 3, 6 or 9 meters), 4,500 bushes, and 15,000 plants from a wide range of shrubs and floral plants distributed according to the sun exposure of each facade. In addition to evergreen species, deciduous tree specimens include beeches, yellow acacias, oaks, maples, ash trees, ferns and ivy, which were arranged on the four different façades of the two skyscrapers. A team of aerial arborists perform pruning and other maintenance tasks several times per year, both inside and out. The over 20,000 plants absorb about 10,000 kilograms of CO2 per year, and produce about 19,000 kilograms, or 42,000 pounds, of oxygen per year. The lushly planted Bosco Verticale, and its ever-evolving seasonal facades, offer residents a cool, colorful, and sustainable lifestyle and contribute dramatically to the Milan cityscape. Conceived as a prototype of the skyscrapers of the future, Stefano Boeri Architetti continues with future designs for Vertical Forests throughout the world.