Radical architects are obsessed with turning cities into forests to combat climate change. These unreal photos show that the extraordinary idea actually works.

forest city

Buildings covered in plants are popping up all over the world, and soon, the world will have its first forest city in Lizhou, China.
Biophilic design has become popular among architects wanting to combat air pollution. The concept has designers embedding plants into walls, buildings, and even draping entire cities in greenery.
The practice eliminates half of some of cities' worst air pollutants, which improves air quality. Plus, plant life helps cool down cities in the wake of climate change.
Singapore's Supertrees, Amazon's Spheres, and indoor cloud forests are just some examples of how architects and botanists are working together.
Patrick Blanc and Stefano Boeri are a couple of industry players leading this movement through radical design and a passion for the natural environment — they're altering the urban landscape as we know it.
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Architects like Stefano Boeri are taking design to the next level by creating entire forest cities. Lizhou, China is the first Forest City by Boeri, and it's set to be completed in 2020.

Located in Lizhou, China, the city will be made up entirely of vertical forests, which are buildings covered in plants. "I felt the urgency to design buildings and plan cities that dealt with contemporary urgent issues such as climate change effects, pollution, energetic and food sustainability," Boeri said of his work.

And that's reflected in the end result. "Forest cities are smart, energetically sustainable and self-sufficient from the point of view of agriculture and food suppliance," Boeri said.

Boeri's team works with botanist Laura Gatti and her team to analyze the climate of the site. They choose the trees and plants that can grow easily in that environment to design an ecosystem that can sustain itself as independently as possible.

Boeri has his eye on other cities as well. Currently, his team is working on different projects of cities in the Middle East, China, and South America.

One of these days we may not be able to see a city from Google Earth because it's all going to be green.

At least that's the goal for architects like Margaret Montgomery. Montgomery is the Director of Sustainability at NBBJ — the architecture design firm that planned Amazon's Spheres.

Located in Seattle, Washington, the Spheres are a part of Amazon's downtown campus.

They are designed to put up to 800 Amazon employees into the ideal headspace to get work done.

People working in offices with plants are 15% more productive.

Source: Business Insider

The Spheres house over 40,000 plants of 400 species.

Source: Business Insider

Developers chose the plant species for this project with humans in mind. Tropical plants thrive in the same weather conditions that humans are comfortable with.

Source: Business Insider

The conditions of this ecosystem are referred to as "cloud forests" because plants at high elevation get their moisture directly from clouds.

Source: Business Insider

Projects like Spheres are labeled "biophilic" because they are designed to incorporate nature into manmade spaces.

Source: Business Insider

Another indoor cloud forest exists in Singapore, Asia, and it's actually called "Cloud Forest."

Source: Business Insider

This place is not for working, though. Cloud Forest and another exhibit called Flower Dome are twin exhibits that teach patrons about the diversity of plant life outside of Singapore.

Source: Business Insider

Flower Dome has a lot of endangered plant species from regions all over the world.

Source: Business Insider

Cloud Forest has an indoor mountain that is flushed with life ...

Source: Business Insider

... and complete with the world's largest indoor waterfall.

Source: Business Insider

Flower Dome and Cloud Forest were designed by WilkinsonEyre and are part of a larger park called Gardens by the Bay. The park also includes 'supertrees.'

Source: WilkinsonEyre

These man-made 'trees' are filled with 62,900 plants from 200 species and solar-powered lights that change colors in the night.

Source: Business Insider

The plan is for plant life to take over the manmade framework, leaving the lush, green supertrees looking surreal and all-natural.

Source: Business Insider

While Gardens by the Bay was made for recreational purposes ...

... other examples of biophilic architecture are integrated into life's necessities.

Architect Stefano Boeri designed "Bosco Verticale"— the vertical forest buildings in Milan. These towers are residential.

Source: Business Insider

The skyscrapers are covered in more than 700 trees and 90 species of plants. But plants are chosen strategically, and not just in Milan.

NBBJ's Montgomery said all plants "need to be local or locally adaptive."

Plants need to thrive under the area's weather conditions and the shallowness of the soil, especially on green roofs or walls, Montgomery said.

People often ask about leakage from green roofs. But Mongomery said that's unlikely.

Plants on the outside of the building help reduce smog in the air and regulate indoor temperatures.

Biophilic architecture can cut the amount of some air pollutants in half, according to a study by ACS Publications.

Source: ACS Publications

It also helps trees cool down cities by blocking the sun from radiating onto the ground.

And water evaporates from the leaves as the sun hits them, kind of like how sweat cools people off.

Source: The Conversation

Buildings can be eco-friendly on the inside, too. The interior of "Bosco Verticale" features a complex irrigation system that takes water residents use ...

... and sends it back to the plants outside.

This decreases greenhouse gases that the LEED-certified buildings produce by 50%.

Source: US Green Building Council, Archi Objects

Boeri told Business Insider that sometime after the buildings went up, different species of birds that had long left the city started to re-colonize it.

This process began with the vertical forest, where the birds found an environment suitable for nesting.

Montgomery says that's when you know you've done a good job. The goal is to create a cohesive living space for people and animals.

Montgomery also told Business Insider that less affluent areas tend to have "less nature, therefore worse health, and more stress."

Source: Scientific American, NPR, The Guardian

So because of this, Montgomery believes biophilia should be used to bridge the gap between "the haves and the have nots."

And Boeri had his finger on the pulse of this budding architectural trend.

After Bosco Verticale went up, many other plans for reforestation started popping up all around the world.

Source: The New York Times

Patrick Blanc is another huge industry player, although he's a botanist, not an architect.

Source: South China Morning Post

Blanc is known as the modern-inventor of the green wall. "When I began this 40 years ago, I was the only one in the world," Blanc told South China Morning Post.

Source: South China Morning Post

"And up to 15 years ago, I was still the only one," Blanc said. "Now everybody is creating living walls and vertical gardens."

Source: South China Morning Post

Blanc's vertical forests are very different from Boeri's. Rather than creating balconies for plants, Blanc literally plants onto walls.

Source: South China Morning Post

Blanc has a complex plant wall system that supports the garden and even waters the plants.

Source: Inexhibit

When asked about his hopes for the future of biophilic architecture, Boeri's answer was in-line with Montgomery's, but with an emphasis on policy.

"I hope that we will be able to invest more and more on research and that governments will be more sensitive towards the necessity of policies that favor and support this kind of architecture," he said.

Architects like Stefano Boeri are taking design to the next level by creating entire forest cities. Lizhou, China is the first Forest City by Boeri, and it's set to be completed in 2020.

And that's reflected in the end result. "Forest cities are smart, energetically sustainable and self-sufficient from the point of view of agriculture and food suppliance," Boeri said.

Boeri's team works with botanist Laura Gatti and her team to analyze the climate of the site. They choose the trees and plants that can grow easily in that environment to design an ecosystem that can sustain itself as independently as possible.

Boeri has his eye on other cities as well. Currently, his team is working on different projects of cities in the Middle East, China, and South America.

One of these days we may not be able to see a city from Google Earth because it's all going to be green.

At least that's the goal for architects like Margaret Montgomery. Montgomery is the Director of Sustainability at NBBJ — the architecture design firm that planned Amazon's Spheres.

Located in Seattle, Washington, the Spheres are a part of Amazon's downtown campus.

They are designed to put up to 800 Amazon employees into the ideal headspace to get work done.

People working in offices with plants are 15% more productive.

The Spheres house over 40,000 plants of 400 species.

Developers chose the plant species for this project with humans in mind. Tropical plants thrive in the same weather conditions that humans are comfortable with.

The conditions of this ecosystem are referred to as "cloud forests" because plants at high elevation get their moisture directly from clouds.

Projects like Spheres are labeled "biophilic" because they are designed to incorporate nature into manmade spaces.

Another indoor cloud forest exists in Singapore, Asia, and it's actually called "Cloud Forest."

This place is not for working, though. Cloud Forest and another exhibit called Flower Dome are twin exhibits that teach patrons about the diversity of plant life outside of Singapore.

Flower Dome has a lot of endangered plant species from regions all over the world.

Cloud Forest has an indoor mountain that is flushed with life ...

... and complete with the world's largest indoor waterfall.

Flower Dome and Cloud Forest were designed by WilkinsonEyre and are part of a larger park called Gardens by the Bay. The park also includes 'supertrees.'

These man-made 'trees' are filled with 62,900 plants from 200 species and solar-powered lights that change colors in the night.

The plan is for plant life to take over the manmade framework, leaving the lush, green supertrees looking surreal and all-natural.

While Gardens by the Bay was made for recreational purposes ...

... other examples of biophilic architecture are integrated into life's necessities.

Architect Stefano Boeri designed "Bosco Verticale"— the vertical forest buildings in Milan. These towers are residential.

The skyscrapers are covered in more than 700 trees and 90 species of plants. But plants are chosen strategically, and not just in Milan.

NBBJ's Montgomery said all plants "need to be local or locally adaptive."

Plants need to thrive under the area's weather conditions and the shallowness of the soil, especially on green roofs or walls, Montgomery said.

People often ask about leakage from green roofs. But Mongomery said that's unlikely.

Plants on the outside of the building help reduce smog in the air and regulate indoor temperatures.

Biophilic architecture can cut the amount of some air pollutants in half, according to a study by ACS Publications.

It also helps trees cool down cities by blocking the sun from radiating onto the ground.

And water evaporates from the leaves as the sun hits them, kind of like how sweat cools people off.

Buildings can be eco-friendly on the inside, too. The interior of "Bosco Verticale" features a complex irrigation system that takes water residents use ...

... and sends it back to the plants outside.

This decreases greenhouse gases that the LEED-certified buildings produce by 50%.

Boeri told Business Insider that sometime after the buildings went up, different species of birds that had long left the city started to re-colonize it.

This process began with the vertical forest, where the birds found an environment suitable for nesting.

Montgomery says that's when you know you've done a good job. The goal is to create a cohesive living space for people and animals.

Montgomery also told Business Insider that less affluent areas tend to have "less nature, therefore worse health, and more stress."

So because of this, Montgomery believes biophilia should be used to bridge the gap between "the haves and the have nots."

And Boeri had his finger on the pulse of this budding architectural trend.

After Bosco Verticale went up, many other plans for reforestation started popping up all around the world.

Patrick Blanc is another huge industry player, although he's a botanist, not an architect.

Blanc is known as the modern-inventor of the green wall. "When I began this 40 years ago, I was the only one in the world," Blanc told South China Morning Post.

"And up to 15 years ago, I was still the only one," Blanc said. "Now everybody is creating living walls and vertical gardens."

Blanc's vertical forests are very different from Boeri's. Rather than creating balconies for plants, Blanc literally plants onto walls.

Blanc has a complex plant wall system that supports the garden and even waters the plants.

When asked about his hopes for the future of biophilic architecture, Boeri's answer was in-line with Montgomery's, but with an emphasis on policy.

"I hope that we will be able to invest more and more on research and that governments will be more sensitive towards the necessity of policies that favor and support this kind of architecture," he said.

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