I’d like to introduce you to the world’s first Bosco Verticale (Italian for Vertical Forest), which is being built right now in Milan. According to Christopher Woodward, a writer for the Financial Times, it’s “the most exciting new tower in the world.”

This vertical forest will span across two towers that have fabulous balconies designed to house these trees. The pictures below are an image of how it’s projected to look, although I wonder if once the project is completed if it will take a decade for the trees to grow to that height. When it’s all said and done, this vertical forest will consist of 900 trees, 5,000 bushes and 11,000 plants.

This forest, designed by architect Stefano Boeri, will allow the greenery to get shade in the summer, sunlight in the winder and protection from the wind while it cleans the air, produces oxygen and cuts down on all the noise pollution in Milan. If this same number of trees, bushes and plants were planted horizontally around these houses on the ground, it would require 50,000 square meters of land and 10,000 square meters of woodland. Wow, talk about optimizing space, this is awesome!