Is it possible to combine the convenience of apartment city-living with the benefits of a house in the 'burbs: greenery at your doorstep, a pool out the back?

Apparently so, with a new generation of high-rises boasting a built-in connection to nature.

Check out Milan's amazing Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest), designed by Boeri Studio. The cantilevered balconies that extend around the perimeter of its two apartment buildings have been designed to host 480 larger trees, 50 smaller ones, 11,000 groundcover plants and 5,000 shrubs.

The team of architects and botanists claim this will be the equivalent of a hectare of forest.

It's a tall order for the trees that have already been craned onto the first three levels of the 26-storey and 18-storey towers. They are intended to provide shade in summer while in winter their bare branches should allow sunlight to penetrate the interiors. They are also expected to absorb the city's pollution, with irrigation supplied through the filtering and reuse of the building's grey water.