How high-rise forests can change urban life and make us happy

It has been ten years since the creation of Bosco Virtikare in Milan, the first vertical forest. How did you affect other buildings? And did it affect the well-being and health of the residents?

In 2007, Italian architect Stefano Boeri witnessed the desperate construction of a city in the Dubai Desert, dominated by energy-sucking skyscrapers covered in glass, ceramic and metal. All of these materials “reflected sunlight, generated heat in the air, especially on the ground in cities where pedestrians walked,” he says. 3,000 miles away, he began working on his own designs for two extremely tall buildings in a neglected area of ​​Northern Milan. “All of a sudden it happened to me to make two biological towers… it’s covered in leaves, not glass,” he says. The design offers a radical new architectural prototype that invites fauna and flora to the wastelands of this industry, cooling the air inside and outside, and explaining “integrating creatures as constitutive parts.” The surprising result was the world’s first “vertical forest.”

The award-winning design is now 10 years old and the plant is maintained by “The Flying Gardener” The leaves emit water vapor and filter out the sunlight, making the sides of the building and its residents cool up to three degrees. To celebrate this anniversary, construction company Stefano Beauli Architetti has released a new book. Bosco Verticale: morphology of vertical forestfeaturing essays by major voices working at the intersection of nature and architecture, along with images by architectural photographer Ivan Byrne. The book traces the evolution of the project and the principles it supports, and publisher Rizoli “celebrates architectural works that have become symbols of a new collective sensibility for caring for the environment and the plant world.”

In a reversal of the normal architectural hierarchy, the book describes vertical forests as “houses of trees and birds that house humans.” It is based on the philosophies and texts that influenced it, such as the Secret Life by British biologist Colin Tadge (2006). This is a work that explains the important role that trees play in our lives by sequestering carbon, producing glucose and providing shade. He also quotes British etologist Dame Jane Goodall. As the population grows, she argues, “it is desperately important that this growth should involve new incentives to bring the natural world into existing cities and lead to new cities planning.”

Since the completion of the vertical forests of Milan, plant-rich construction, green waves have begun to reintroduce nature into our cities. Dubai In Denver, Colorado; Antwerp In Arlington, Virginia;and Africa’s first vertical forest It is scheduled to break into Cairo later this year. To answer critics who doubted the affordability of the concept Trudo Vertical Forest A social housing project with a rent cap of 600 euros (£510) per month in Eindhoven, Netherlands (filled in 2021).

Montpellier, France, one-third of that Secret Garden – Forestry breeding development designed by Vincent Carrebeau architecture in Paris, and is expected to be completed later this year – reserved for affordable housing. In integrating practices such as rooftop agriculture and water recycling, secret gardens “will deal with the climate crisis by restoring human-nature connections,” Vincent Carrebaud told the BBC. “By turning residents into carbon sinks into urban gardeners and facades, this building shows that it is a lifestyle philosophy, not ecology,” he says.

The power of these extraordinary structures changes how people live and feel, and is at the heart of their design. Vincent Callebaut Architectures’ latest designs Rainbow Tree (Cebu, Philippines) inspired by native psychedelic colours Rainbow Eucalyptus TreeBark. However, “trees” require residents of each of the 300 apartments to maintain an impressive flora. In addition to its shared greenhouse and urban beehives, this helps to “promote social ties,” create a sense of community connection and helps to “foster social ties.”

Recent research supports this concept (design that utilizes human innate connections with nature) that can have a positive impact on our well-being. a study The University of Wageningen in the Netherlands reported that the presence of plants in the work environment not only improves the appeal of the workspace, but also increases employee satisfaction. Workers also noticed improvements in air quality and reported fewer health-related complaints.

In Wales, Ten years of research Looking at the presence of anxiety and depression in the 2.3 million medical records, we found that the greenest home environment is associated with anxiety and depression 40% less than those living in the greenest areas. People in poor areas benefit most, reducing the risk of anxiety and depression by 10% when access to green spaces and water (6% in wealthy areas).

It is probably not surprising that biologically philic concepts are being entrusted to new hospitals. Callebaut’s Hospiwood 21in L’Arvière, Belgium, the architect says, “We use greens to reduce the stress of green and increase recovery to incorporate therapeutic vertical forests,” and has something to soothe. Biophysiological interior Full of cascade plants. Meanwhile, in Italy, Stefano Boli New Policlinico Hospital Milan It features over 7,000 square meters of rooftop gardens. Biophilia, Biori said, is part of a rethinking of care facilities.

In fact, green tendrils of physiological design creep up into a vast range of buildings. Jewel Changi AirportSingapore’s 10-storey leisure and retail complex has been open to both Air Force passengers and visitors since 2019, boasting 1,400 trees and the tallest indoor forest in the world Indoor waterfall (40m). In Amsterdam, sustainable bamboo interior Hotel Jakarta (Established in 2018) It features a tropical garden in the central atrium, and rainwater is soothed from the roof, moving rapidly towards the 30-meter-high ceiling. One hour in Rotterdam, the rooftop forest near ground level, crown Depotshaped like a cauldron with a giant mirror, Boijmans Van Beuningen, a public storage facility for the museum’s vast art collection.

In addition to lifting our spirits, high-rise forests can play an important role in tackling climate change. Vincent Carrebose Tao Zhu Yin Yuan In Taipei, Taiwan, a 21st floor tower shaped like a double helix of DNA, was completed in 2024. 23,000 plants absorb an estimated 130 tons of CO2 each year, and the cooling effect on the facade reduces the need for air conditioners by 30%. The building features a rotating balcony to maximize exposure to the sun, but the ventilation chimney reflects the chimney in the core (emulation of a natural system to provide a solution to human problems), and acts like a lung, allowing air to be drawn at its base, purifying it and then ousting it at the top.

Much taller than wide high-rise forests, it minimizes soil sealing, frees up land for nature and reduces flood risk. “My project embodies a vision where cities are no longer a climate problem, but a living solution,” Callebaut says. It’s far from nature as a “deficiency or decorative aftermarket,” and it’s a design guide. Currently, the building says that “live trees… absorb CO2, generate energy and evacuate biodiversity.” In response to two major modern crises, global warming and declining mental health, biologically philic buildings are already envisioned as part of a fully forested city. One of the futurists of Stefano Boli, one of the world’s worst regions for Smog in Lizhou, China’s Guangzhou Province Forest Citywhich has around 30,000 residents, has generated all its own energy, is approved and is waiting for construction. The company’s Cancun Smart Forest City Mexico plans to ban burning vehicles and also awaits orders for starters.

Back in Milan, the building that began everything with rooftop solar panels is definitely a tree-like thing, harvesting energy from the sun and drawing groundwater. “Nature does not exist in the ancient past,” writes author and philosopher Emmanuele Koccia in the book. “It will always be the future of our technology.” Regarding Beauli, he writes that the vibrant twin vertical forests in Milan are not just buildings, but rather “a political manifesto with simple and popular messages.”