Welcome to the jungle: plants overrun Chinese apartment blocks

The ‘vertical forest’ project saw all 826 apartments sold by April, but a mosquito invasion has meant only 10 families have moved in so far

An experimental green housing project in a Chinese megacity promised prospective residents life in a “vertical forest”, with manicured gardens on every balcony. All 826 apartments were sold out by April this year, according to the project’s estate agent, but instead of a modern eco-paradise, the towers look like the set of a desolate, post-apocalyptic film. The problem? The mosquitoes love the plants too.

Interesting piece.

It’s not good enough for Solarpunks to just demand a future that looks like this. There is so much more that must come with it otherwise this sort of thing is going to continue to happen.



As cultural theorist, urbanist, and aesthetic philosopher Paul Virilio said:

When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck.





Whole systems thinking is needed when thinking about a bright green future. Ecosystems, predators, pests as well as the human and more than human neighbours. This is of course the concept engrained in the Solarpunk scene as Mutual Flourishing.



See this pre-print paper on Multispecies Sustainability from the Multispeices Cities Project: Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (Kyoto, Japan).

For more info on the emerging frameworks on this subject.



Disclaimer: One of the co-authors is one of our Admins!

(Source: telegraph.co.uk)