No, Architects, You Can't Plant Trees On Top Of Skyscrapers
Vertical Forests Concept for the Bosco Verticale, or "Vertical Forest," high-rises. These buildings are now under construction in Milan. Picture by Boeri Studio (Stefano Boeri, Gianandrea Barreca, Giovanni La Varra) Despite all the trendy concept drawings you may have seen, trees actually hate living on top of buildings. You've seen them. Those artists' renditions of futuristic skyscrapers, with trees growing in rooftop gardens or mid-building parks. City living is hard on the human psyche, so architects imagine that in the future, we'll have soothing green spaces built right into our high-rises. Not so fast, environmental researcher-turned-journalist Tim de Chant writes on his blog. Trees often don't grow well on top of skyscrapers, De Chant explains, for a few crucial reasons. First, it's much windier up there, which strips the tiny protective layer of air every leaf maintains. Some plants evolved to live in hot and windy climates and have adaptations to deal...