Marina Miceli
Europe Press Office,London
Bosco Verticale, a residential high-rise development with its own urban forest in Milan, has been awarded the International Highrise Award 2014.
The award was presented by the City of Frankfurt am Main together with Deutsches Architekturmuseum and DekaBank.
Designed by Boeri Studio and developed by Hines, this vertical forest in the heart of one of Europe's most polluted cities includes two residential towers which are 110m and 76m high. In total, 900 trees measuring between 3m and 6m have been planted, along with 5,000 shrubs and 11,000 floral plants on terraces up to the 27th floor.
The project is set to create a new standard for sustainable housing and was developed with the help of our structural and geotechnical designs, together with consultancy services on acoustics, vibrations, ground-borne noise and tunneling. We are also providing advanced design solutions related to the effects of two existing railway tunnels under the site that required a dedicated design of a base-isolation system for the main buildings.
As a new growth model for the regeneration of the urban environment, the design creates a biological habitat in a total area of 40,000m2. The designers aim to inspire greater urban biodiversity in the face of Milan's challenge of increasing pollution. The vast amount of greenery on the building encourages the production of energy. As well as creating oxygen and humidity, the plants also absorb CO2 and dust particles, which improves the environment.
From compact two-room apartments to penthouses and duplexes, the main characteristics of the flats are the balconies, which extend 3.35m outwards to host the greenery. The design also includes photovoltaic energy systems to increase the degree of energetic self-sufficiency of the two towers.
