Posted Oct 29, 2011, 4:36 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Toronto
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MILAN | Bosco Verticale | 110 & 78 M | 24 & 17 FLOORS
Plans for 'vertical forests' – tower blocks filled with foliage – are taking shape
Read More: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...l-2377431.html
Quote:
Forward-thinking architects are coming around to the view that inner-city tower blocks and woodland can be combined and are incorporating both in their latest designs. Plans for "vertical forests" – 25-floor buildings, flecked with balconies full of bushes and small trees – are sprouting up in several European countries. Fittingly, Milan, the continent's design capital but also one of western Europe's most polluted cities, is leading the way with the construction of two green towers. The Bosco Verticale (vertical wood) project, due to be completed in 2015, consists of two residential blocks, 110 metres and 76 metres in height, set in the Isola neighbourhood just north of the city centre. The towers will house a total of 900 trees, ranging from 3m to 9m in height, plus thousands of shrubs and flowering plants.
Stefano Boeri, the architect responsible for the design, says that together the buildings will provide the city with the equivalent of a further 10,000 square metres of woodland. The layer of foliage around the apartments is supposed to produce humidity, absorb CO2 and dust particles, produce oxygen and shield the building from traffic noise. Energy recycling systems that generate power from sunlight and wind should produce "dramatic" energy savings. The designers say that the plants provide shade in the summer and allow more light through during the winter months after they have shed their leaves.
But all that environmental technology doesn't come cheap. Prices at the exclusive development will start at €750,000 for 100 square metres, near the ground, rising to €1.2m for flats with spectacular views across the city. "The towers may well be beautiful, but they are not something everyone can afford," said Damiano di Simine, regional president of the environmental campaign group Legambiente. "The real answers to Milan's pollution problems lie with sorting out the traffic problems and improving public transport."
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http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/03b0f...#axzz1cAMC6CsY
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