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China set to bring Italy’s vertical forests to Asia as tower boom continues

Stefano Boeri Architetti, the Milan-based firm that has pioneered the "vertical forest" in Europe, is to bring its concept to China with delivery of two towers to the former capital of Nanjing.

Rising 200m and 108m above the Pukou District, the towers will be the first forested buildings in Asia when they are complete in 2018.

Developed by state-owned investment group Nanjing Yang Zi, the taller of the two will contain a museum, an architecture school and a rooftop club. The smaller will accommodate a 247-room Hyatt hotel and rooftop swimming pool. Both will sprout from a 20m-high podium that will include shops, restaurants and a conference hall.

According to the architect, the vegetation will be made up of 1,100 trees from 23 local species and 2,500 cascading shrubs and plants.

Meanwhile, China is dominating the world in the construction of tall buildings, according to the latest annual review published by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

Of 128 towers that were 200m or higher completed in 2016, China was home to 84, followed by the US with seven, South Korea with six, Indonesia five, and the Philippines and Qatar, which built four each.

The Chinese city of Shenzhen erected more tall buildings than the whole of the US combined, the council found.

The tallest building completed was the 530m-high Guangzhou CTF Financial Centre in Guangzhou.

Image: The towers are a centrepiece of the Yangtze River Economic Zone (Stefano Boeri Architetti)

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Comments

  1. More near to green in a concrete jungle. Greatest appreciation towards the nature , Hope this shall be noted and underlined in green by other nations too.

  2. My first question is 1. how much water will it require to maintain a building wrapped in trees and shrubs?
    2. With the amount of moisture required, how would you keep the other sections completely dry without growing fungus, mold or mildew?
    3. how would the trees and shrubs anchor them selves to the structure in a secure enough way to stay in place during a wind storm?
    4. At that height, I would think wind would be dangerous to tree limbs, people,
    property on the street.
    5. since trees grow continuously, how would you safely handle a 30 ft. tree 30 stories up that needed to be cut down?

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