These “vertical forests” look like skyscrapers made of trees, and they’re helping China fight pollution
Buildings covered with trees and plants are beautiful additions to the streets of any city, but they also serve a far more important purpose. “Vertical forests” look like skyscrapers made of trees — and they’re helping China fight pollution by soaking up urban air pollution, producing clean oxygen, and boosting local biodiversity. China — a country plagued by dangerous smog from coal plants, factories, and vehicles — is expected to have green towers by 2018.
Italian architecture firm Stefano Boeri Architetti has unveiled its designs for the Nanjing Green Towers, a pair of multi-use buildings in the capital of China’s southern Jiangsu province.
The Vertical Forests will be comprised of 1,100 trees from nearly two-dozen local species, as well as 2,500 cascading plants and shrubs.
According to architects, the green area will span a combined 64,600 square feet.
They’ll absorb 25 tons of carbon dioxide each year, and produce approximately 60 kilograms of oxygen every day.
The buildings will be modeled after Stefano Boeri Architetti’s vertical forests in Milan, Italy and Lausanne, Switzerland.
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The tallest Nanjing Green Tower will be 656 feet high, and it will be home to offices, a museum, a green architecture school, and a private rooftop club. The shorter tower will be a 354-foot-high building with a Hyatt hotel and a rooftop swimming pool.
The buildings will be constructed on a 66-foot-high podium with a food market, restaurants, a shopping center, and a conference hall.
The Vertical Forests are part of a new effort to create environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing buildings to combat pollution. In Mexico City, the Via Verde Project will transform highway pillars into gardens that will cleanse the air. Props to these innovative architects for creating buildings that will benefit the environment — plus, they’re absolutely stunning.
