Have you ever wanted to live in a beautiful garden while still having the benefits of a modern high-tech home? I have wonderful news for you. You don't have to go all the way to Milan to enjoy a vertical forest! Just go to Tokyo, Japan: it's two steps. And two skyscrapers. Vertical gardens with trees and other vegetation, complemented by a green roof that goes from the ground floor to the top of the two structures. They are called Toranomon Towers, the German studio built them Ingenhoven, and they are amazing.
At first glance, it seems that both skyscrapers house an entire forest inside them. And this is precisely the aim of architects. Toranomon Residential Tower e Toranomon Business Tower (do I really have to tell you what their intended use is? It's clear from the name) they are part of a larger "Toranomon project", which promises to fill the Japanese capital with vertical forests.
The business tower is 185 meters (607 feet) tall, the residential tower is 220 meters (722 feet) tall, and is currently the tallest residential building in Japan.
Toranomon Towers, luminous symbols of biophilia
The theory of biophilia suggests that humans feel a connection to nature and other living organisms, which may explain why being in nature often makes people feel calm and relaxed. The Toranomon Towers take this principle literally, and aim to become a symbol of it. Especially in such an urbanized area as Tokyo (in the photo you can also see the legendary TV tower, which echoes the Eiffel Tower a little. A little.)
The newly built Toranomon Towers. Image credits: ingenhoven
The project is inspired by traditional Japanese architecture. The two towers' residential vertical gardens are surrounded by lush greenery on eleven of the 54 floors and seven of the 36 floors. The highest has 550 apartments, while the lowest includes 400 offices.
The designers installed shock absorbers in both structures and connected them to a nearby building to reduce the impact of any seismic activity, given the particularly sensitive nature of this area.
And well-being doesn't stop at biophilia. The Toranomon Towers include spas, gyms and other modern amenities that make people's lives more enjoyable. Indeed, the designers say: in some ways, both vertical gardens are spas. Because?
Vertical gardens, also good for the air
Carbon emissions are generated by any structure that houses people, from a modest home to a towering skyscraper. The carbon footprints of various human activities (cooking, washing) and equipment (air conditioner, refrigerator) in a building are distinct, but what if these emissions could be offset? Planting trees on, around and inside a building is the simplest and most effective approach to making it carbon neutral. CO 2 is absorbed by trees through photosynthesis; therefore, planting trees inside and outside the building is the most effective method to make it carbon neutral.
When space is limited, as is often the case in crowded cities and special economic zones, planting trees can seem like an impossible task. However, constructing buildings as vertical gardens offers a way to reduce your carbon footprint and clean up polluted air, which produces millions of deaths per year (don't believe it?). Green skyscrapers give us great opportunities to live in harmony with nature and offer multi-million dollar benefits.
An example? The tallest vertical gardens in the world (the Santalaia residential building in Columbia) produce oxygen for over 3000 people, eliminate pollution generated by 745 vehicles and eliminate the carbon footprint of 700 people every year. Tree House vertical gardens in Singapore save owners around $500.000 per year on water and electricity bills.
The construction of the Toranomon Towers is not only a big step in the right direction, but also inspires other architects to design greener buildings. I hope it also encourages the inhabitants of hyper-technological Tokyo to experience and promote the benefits and values of adopting sustainable living.
