Milan’s Bosco Verticale

boscoNo, these two towers are nowhere to be found in the Twin Cities.

Known as the “Bosco Verticale” (Vertical Forest), the Milan project consists of two towers, 26 stories and 18 stories high, ringed with what appear to be evergreen trees.

Wikipedia elaborates:

“It is called Bosco Verticale because each tower houses trees between three and six meters which help mitigate smog and produce oxygen. It is also used to moderate temperatures in the building in the winter and summer.[9] The plants also attenuate noise.[10] The design was tested in a wind tunnel to ensure the trees would not topple from gusts of wind.[11] Botanists and horticulturalists were consulted by the engineering team to ensure that the structure could bear the load imposed by the plants.”

Home as Art/Art as Home

It will be interesting to see how the complex’s 400 units actually live, and what condo owners (and presumably inhabitants) say over time (the project opened last Fall).

Question #1:  do all those sound-absorbing, oxygen-generating trees also block out natural light, making the interior dark?

Question #2:  do the buildings leak? (keeping a vertical forest nourished presumably requires a LOT of extra water — something that’s not normally good for a building’s structure, maintenance, etc.).

But the “livability” factor probably looms largest.

Architecture buffs know that Frank Lloyd Wright’s brilliantly designed homes (including landmarks like “Falling Water” near Pittsburgh) were notorious for something else:  being (in)famously user-unfriendly, and a headache to live in (sometimes literally, due to low overhead).

P.S.: Resale prices will fairly quickly tell whether Bosco Verticale is a hit or bust.

Long-term, the best measure will be whether it inspires copycats.

About the author

Ross Kaplan has 19+ years experience selling real estate all over the Twin Cities. He is also a 12-time consecutive "Super Real Estate Agent," as determined by Mpls. - St. Paul Magazine and Twin Cities Business Magazine. Prior to becoming a Realtor, Ross was an attorney (corporate law), CPA, and entrepreneur. He holds an economics degree from Stanford.

Leave a Reply