Bosco Verticale

Bosco Verticale is a pair of residential towers in Milan’s Porta Nuova district designed by Boeri Studio. Their projecting balconies support trees, shrubs and other plants, making vegetation an integral part of the buildings’ architecture.

Why it matters

Designed between 2007 and 2014 by Stefano Boeri, Gianandrea Barreca and Giovanni La Varra, the two towers apply the idea of vertical forestry to a residential building. Project documentation describes approximately 800 trees, 4,500 shrubs and 20,000 plants across the towers. The design became a widely recognized example of vegetation integrated into dense urban architecture.

What to notice

The balconies project nearly three metres from the façades to accommodate tree crowns, with planting distributed according to orientation and exposure. Stoneware cladding provides a dark background to the vegetation. The towers’ profiles change with the seasons and form part of the wider Porta Nuova redevelopment around Piazza Gae Aulenti and the Biblioteca degli Alberi.

Context and history

The towers were developed as part of the transformation of Milan’s former freight yards into the Porta Nuova district. Boeri Studio’s project ran from 2007 to 2014, with Hines Italia and COIMA as clients. The buildings helped bring international attention to vertical forestry as an approach to urban design; the vegetation is commonly described by the designers as equivalent to several hectares of ground-level planting.