Vertical Forest Building
The Nanjing Green Towers in China, which will be completed in 2018, will be Asia's first vertical forest buildings. The Towers are part of China's efforts to reduce the detrimental effect of air pollution in the city and will be equipped with 1100 trees and 2500 cascading plants and shrubs.
These vertical forest buildings are the work of the renowned designer Stefano Boeri, who has completed two similar successful projects in Milan and Losanna. Bosco Verticale (Milan, Italy) won the International Highrise Award in 2014. According to Boeri's website, these are the benefits of vertical forest buildings in terms of ecology:
1. Increase biodiversity
The buildings create an urban ecosystem which can attract wildlife (birds and insects) and ecological corridors linking green spaces in the city.
2. Creation of microclimate
The vegetation can filter dust, generate oxygen, and provide shade and acoustic barrier.
The video above also indicated that grey water from the building is used to water the plants, thus encouraging reuse.
A similar concept can be seen in green roofs, which are a common feature of buildings geared towards sustainability. Roofs of buildings are covered with vegetation, such as grass cover, instead of being left bare. They are used to mitigate the urban heat island effect, decrease stormwater runoff and to improve the aesthetics of the urban space.
These design innovations show that urban planners are increasingly incorporating green features in buildings. When large areas of forests have been cleared for urban development, these green buildings help to reduce the impact of the loss of vegetation. Singapore is also moving in this direction, as shown by projects like the Green Heart. It is a multi-level space consisting of lush vegetations and ponds in the middle of four high-rise buildings.
I think that incorporating these features and introducing vertical buildings to Singapore can elevate our status as 'City in a Garden'. Singapore, due to its small size, has limited forested areas which are highly threatened by development. Recently, the Lentor forest was cleared extensively to construct commercial buildings for the new Lentor MRT station. Once a secondary forest with rich biodiversity, the land is now barren.
In the pursuit of economic development, the ecological importance of an area may take a backseat. It is more ideal to conserve and protect the area instead of trying to mitigate the effects in the future at additional costs. While such green buildings are commendable for their efforts in conservation, they would not be able to replace actual forests. Certain species can only thrive in a forest habitat and the species attracted to such buildings will usually be confined to those commonly found in urban parks and accustomed to human presence.
