On the German site Süddeutsche Zeitung, an interview with Stefano Boeri is published about the Vertical Forest project in Milan, designed by Boeri Studio, on the occasion of its tenth anniversary.
The interview discusses the project from an architectural point of view, highlighting its innovative aspects and environmental benefits – the Vertical Forest hosts 800 trees (480 first and second-grade trees, 300 smaller-sized trees), 15,000 perennials and/or ground cover plants, and 5,000 shrubs – as well as addressing some less discussed aspects.
Perhaps the most unique component of this complex system, now widespread in urban imagination, is constituted by the “Flying Gardeners”: a specialized team of arborist-climbers who, using mountaineering techniques, descend from the buildings’ roofs once a year to prune and check the condition of the plants, as well as their possible removal or replacement. All maintenance and green care operations are managed at the condominium level to maintain control of the anthropic-vegetal balance. Irrigation is also centralized: the plants’ needs are monitored by a digitally remotely controlled sensor system, while the necessary water is largely drawn from the filtration of the towers’ greywater. These solutions exceed the still substantially anthropocentric and technicist concept of “sustainability” towards a new biological diversity. A few years after its construction, the Vertical Forest has thus created a habitat colonized by numerous animal species (including various birds and butterflies), establishing an outpost for the spontaneous re-colonization of vegetation and wildlife in the city.
To read the full article: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/projekte/artikel/stil/10-jahre-bosco-verticale-interview-mit-stefano-boeri-e650321/?reduced=true