“Living Architecture” Brings Nature Back to the City

It would be hard to find a more obvious
example of a “magic look at the world” than the development of
Milan’s Bosco Verticale – two residential towers in the northern Italian city
that are on their way to becoming the world’s first vertical forest. The brainchild
of architect Stefano Boeri, the towers, measuring 110 and 76 metres, will house
over 900 trees, not to mention a wide range of shrubs and floral plants –
essentially the equivalent to a 10,000 square metre forest, growing vertically.

Sophie Vorrath in Climate Spectator (21
October 2011):

In a July TED talk on energy innovation, tech
entrepreneur and Nanoholdings CEO Justin Hall-Tipping spoke about the
importance of challenging our perceptions of “normal”. The tendency
of human beings, he said, “to look at our world through the lens of
‘normal,’ is one of the forces that stops us developing real solutions.”
And while Hall-Tipping was talking about his current work with a group of
“incredibly kind and brilliant” scientists – towards the lofty goal
of decentralising energy and, essentially, making it free for one and all –
it’s comforting to note that the art of taking a “magic look at the
world,” which Hall-Tipping points to as a key starting point for
innovation, seems to be catching on.

It would be hard to find a more obvious
example of a “magic look at the world” than the development of
Milan’s Bosco Verticale – two residential towers in the northern Italian city
that are on their way to becoming the world’s first vertical forest. As the
Financial Times reported last week, the project, the brainchild of architect
Stefano Boeri, includes a balcony planted with trees for each apartment.
“In summer, oaks and amelanchiers will shade the windows and filter the
city’s dust; in winter, sunlight will shrine through the bare branches,”
says Christopher Woodward, director of London’s Garden Museum, writing in the
FT.

But, as Hall-Tipping points out during his
talk, another key part of successful innovation – and to fixing some of the
world’s thornier problems – is to convert the magical into a working reality.
So, while Boeri “begins his presentation with Ovid’s fantasy of the nymph
Daphne being turned into a tree,” he quickly switches to the practical,
says Woodward, by showing that to achieve his building’s green metamorphosis
adds only 5 per cent to construction costs. Boeri also argues that the greening
of high-rise buildings is a necessary response to the sprawl of the modern
city.

Boeri’s magical ‘vertical wood’ has been made
possible due to a new collaboration between architects, engineers, and
botanists, says Woodward. “(He) has had to explain many times the
engineering and horticultural solutions required for an oak tree to grow up to
9m high on the 20th floor of a busy modern city. At the same time, this new
movement is a visionary reclamation of the nature that has vanished from our
cities.”

So how will it work? According to Gizmag, the
towers, measuring 110 and 76 meters, will house over 900 trees, not to mention
a wide range of shrubs and floral plants – essentially the equivalent to a
10,000 square meter forest, growing vertically. As well as being what Boeri
describes as a “device for the environmental survival of contemporary
European cities” (he also describes it as part of the “living architecture”
movement, says Woodward, which differs from the legislation-driven “green
architecture” model in that it focuses on “how cities should
feel”), the greenery will help to produce humidity, absorb CO2 and dust
particles, and produce oxygen, thus improving quality of life for residents,
while also shielding the building from radiation and noise pollution. The
towers will house irrigation and filtering systems which will recycle grey
water for upkeep of the plants, while solar PV will help power the building.

All this will cost an estimated €65 million
($US87.5 million), says Gizmag, and is just the first stage of Boeri’s proposed
BioMilano – a grand plan to create a green belt around Milan, encompassing 60
abandoned farms on the city’s outskirts and restoring them to community use.

http://www.climatespectator.com.au