INTERNATIONAL
ADVENTURES IN VERTICAL FORESTS
tree is OK , if it has no problems then it will have no reason to destroy anything - a tree will become destructive if it is looking for water , oxygen or nutrients , so if we provide the trees with the air , soil and water it needs then the roots will not cause a problem . We also obviously chose specimens who don ’ t have aggressive root systems .”
This meant that Gatti did not shy away from big trees and selected Mediterranean Ash , Green oaks Quercus ilex , and lots of flowering cherries to go alongside small magnolias and olive trees . The design team worked on a detailed maintenance brief at the start of the project which ran for five years . Gatti and her associates continue to monitor the towers and advise on maintenance , which is carried out by a team of expert gardeners .
The monitoring of the towers has also generated preliminary studies on the mitigating effects of the design and build on air and noise pollution . Gatti and her colleagues at the Univeristy of Milan undertook many preliminary studies during and following the build and are now about to embark on a more detailed
study into the effects of the design on biodiverstiy and pollution . And while the Bosco Verticale was designed with biodiversity and climate change at its heart , the project has delivered so much more for the community who live in the vicinity .
Gatti says : “ We have been monitoring the Bosco for the last five years and one of the most remarkable findings is the way that the towers of trees have helped connect not only the residents , but also Milano ’ s citizens , with the cycle of natures . The residents have a living picture of nature before them as they see the changing season happen in front and around them ; they see the birds come to nest , the trees flowering , the trees changing colour and the the leaves falling . Most city dwellers become disconnected from nature but the residents of the Bosco feel as though they own the trees , they have a relationships with them and respond to them . A sense of community has been created through this shared relationship with nature as it ’ s displayed through the life cycle of the trees and plants as they grow and flower on the Bosco .”
In the next couple of years , it is hoped that the city of Najing in China will be ablaze with verdant colour and lots of it as the balconies and vertical surfaces of office blocks , hotels and homes are planted with shrubbery and trees in an attempt to mitigate the toxic pollution faced by its inhabitants . Laura Gatti is working again with the Boeri Studio to make this vision a reality . The Boeri team estimates that the the buildings will suck 25 tons of carbon dioxide from Nanjing ’ s air each year and produce about 60 kg of oxygen every day .
Ninety-four different species of trees and plants were used in Milan and there are plans to utilise 25,000 plants across two towers in Najing in China , and Gatti sources her plants as locally as possible .
44 Landscape Insight | August 2017