Got a spare building plot? Italy shows what tree-mendous things can be done

Photo credit: Inhabitat.com

If you’ve got a spare building plot, Italy shows what tree-mendous things can be done with a few potted plants and some imagination.

The Bosco Verticale, the world’s first “vertical forest”, is a new development that combines agriculture and residential property to create two giant towers with enough green energy to help Milan’s polluted skyline.

The 27-storey blocks (there are two of them) has 900 trees alongside the apartments, and will use its skyscraping foliage to offer residents shade from the sun, shelter from the traffic noise, and a self-sufficient energy supply. Feeding off sunlight, wind and also the residents’ waste water, the trees are a major step towards green housing as heating will be controlled naturally.

Even Milan’s polluted air – full of soot and dirt and other unwanted particles – will be filtered by the branches and leaves on the balcony.

The project is designed by Stefano Boeri, who has conceived the development as a way to bring 10,000 square metres of woodland into the crowded city in a neatly compact form –if the apartments were unstacked and positioned individually around town, they would take up 50,000 square metres of land.

The towers are 110m and 76m tall and cost up to 1.2 million euros to live in, but as far as environmental architecture goes, it’s an impressive development. It’s no surprise that other cities, such as Barcelona are being inspired to start their own green skyscrapers, with Spain’s cultural centre on course to complete its “Stairscraper” in the next three years. Valencia is also planning to erect a similar project, although construction has not formally begun.

So if you’re keen to save the world or add a bit of colour to your home town, and you don’t know what to do with your building plot, Italy‘s example is worth following. After all, who doesn’t want to live in a giant tree house?