The Bosco Verticale
Two residential towers with hundreds of trees on their balconies — world-famous.
Goldmund100 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Guilhem Vellut — CC BY 2.0 · Guilhem Vellut — CC BY 2.0 · Guilhem Vellut — CC BY 2.0
A contemporary public park in the Porta Nuova district north of central Milan, opened in 2018 among the new quarter's towers. The name — the library of trees — explains the design: the planting is arranged in circular groups, each circle a single species, like shelves in a library. The idea is that a visitor learns the species by walking among them rather than by reading a panel. What makes the place important is its context: Porta Nuova was abandoned railway land for decades in the heart of Milan, then wholly rebuilt as a district of glass towers — including the Bosco Verticale, two residential towers covered in hundreds of trees on their balconies, among the best-known works of contemporary architecture in the world. From the park you see the Bosco Verticale and the district's towers from below, and this is the best place to see them from. This quarter is contemporary Milan: entirely unlike the Duomo and the old city, and it explains where the city is heading. Free and open, minutes from Garibaldi station.
Two residential towers with hundreds of trees on their balconies — world-famous.
Circles each of one species, learned by walking rather than reading.
A district explaining where the city is heading, unlike its old centre.
Porta Nuova, north of central Milan
Two residential towers opened in 2014 whose balconies carry some eight hundred trees and thousands of shrubs, planted in containers built into the structure. The idea is that the trees replace the building's façade: shading, filtering air and reducing noise. It has been copied in many cities since, and the towers are not entered — they are seen from outside.
The circular Piazza Gae Aulenti with its water feature and shops, the UniCredit Tower — Italy's tallest building — the Bosco Verticale, and this park linking them all. The area is entirely free to walk and its best hour is the evening when the towers are lit.
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