Located in Norht of Milan (near Milano Porta Garibaldi), Italy, the Bosco Verticale stretches 380 feet tall, and is “one of the most intensive living green façades ever realized,” according to the CTBUH website. The façade uses vegetation screens instead of traditional cladding, “creating a distinct microclimate.” Overall, 480 large trees, 250 small trees, 11,000 groundcover plants, and 5,000 shrubs occupy the building.
The final decision was the culmination of a nearly year-long juried selection process considering 123 entries representing a total of 33 countries. The Regional Winners were One World Trade Center, New York City, United States; CapitaGreen, Singapore; Bosco Verticale, Milan, Italy; Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. IIT Dean Wiel Arets then had the honor of awarding the title of overall “Best Tall Building Worldwide” to Bosco Verticale at a ceremony in Mies van der Rohe’s iconic masterpiece S.R. Crown Hall.
Awards Jury Chair, Mun Summ Wong, Joint Founder, WOHA Architects, shed light on the challenge of selecting this year’s winner, “How do you start to compare a building like Bosco Verticale, which has trees all over it and is just over 100 meters tall, with One World Trade Center – sleek, elegant, poised, and more than five times taller than the former? One is where people live, and the other where they work.”
The jury applauded Bosco Verticale, which translates to “Vertical Forest,” for its extraordinary implementation of vegetation at such scale and height. The building supplants traditional cladding materials with screens of greenery such that the plants act as an extension of the tower’s exterior envelope, creating a distinct microclimate. The building’s intensive “living façade,” incorporating numerous trees and 90-plus species of vegetation, is an active interface to the surrounding environment.
The CTBUH Awards Jury recognized Singapore hotel PARKROYAL on Pickering, for the Urban Habitat Award, which WOHA Architects Co-Founder Richard Hassell accepted. Santiago Calatrava, accepted the 10 Year Award on behalf Santiago Calatrava Architects & Engineers for the Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden. Sydney’s Chifley Tower won the Performance Award for its exceptional energy efficiency upgrades undertaken in 2008, 16 years after the building’s 1992 completion. Maria Ramirez and Alberto Alarcon accepted the Innovation Award for their company’s coffee concrete slab solution, HOLEDECK®.
