Bosco Verticale

Interesting facts

A team of arborist-climbers abseils down the facades several times a year to prune and inspect the trees, earning the nickname flying gardeners.

Before construction the design was tested in a wind tunnel to make sure the trees would not topple in strong gusts.

The plants are watered by a centralised drip system using groundwater, with sensors and separate valves for each plant and shut-off below freezing.

Each tree grows in a concrete basin about 1.1 metres square, with large trees anchored by welded steel frames.

Planting of the facades started on 13 June 2012, after the concrete structure had been completed earlier that year.

The idea has been repeated abroad, notably in the Trudo Vertical Forest social housing tower in Eindhoven, completed in 2021.

Why it is worth it

Bosco Verticale — the "vertical forest" — is two residential towers in Milan's Porta Nuova district that carry a woodland on their balconies. Designed by Stefano Boeri with Gianandrea Barreca and Giovanni La Varra and inaugurated in October 2014, the pair are of unequal height, 116 and 84 metres, with 26 and 18 floors. Their deep, staggered balconies are planted with some 800 trees and many thousands of shrubs and smaller plants of around a hundred species — greenery that, spread on the ground, would cover roughly a hectare of forest.

What makes the towers beautiful rather than merely clever is that they change with the year. The planting was worked out over two years with the agronomist and landscape architect Laura Gatti and the botanist Emanuela Borio, and species were placed by exposure: evergreens on the south-west side, deciduous trees on the north-east, each matched in eventual size to its balcony. So the two sides of each tower behave differently through the seasons — one stays green, the other flushes, colours and thins out as the months turn. Behind the foliage the walls are clad in stoneware the colour of tree bark, with white accents along balconies and sills, a quiet backdrop that lets the leaves do the work.

The idea was to make a dense building that also gives something back to the city: shade, cooler walls, absorbed dust and carbon dioxide, less noise and a softer view for neighbours. It quickly became one of the most influential residential towers of its decade. It won the International Highrise Award in 2014 and was named best tall building worldwide by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat in 2015.

The towers are private homes, so the pleasure is in looking. The surrounding Porta Nuova quarter lets you circle them on foot and see the planting from every angle; the view from below, looking up through overhanging branches, is the most striking.

Getting there

The towers stand on Via Gaetano de Castillia and Via Federico Confalonieri in Milan, about 1.6 km from Brera and some 2.5 km from Piazza del Duomo. Milano Linate Airport (LIN) is about 8 km away. Milano Porta Garibaldi station and the Isola and Garibaldi metro stops are within a short walk.

Plan your visit

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Bosco Verticale

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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