I saw this photo on Instagram a few months ago – someone had posted a picture from what looked like a hotel room, but instead of looking out at the usual city view of concrete and glass, their window was surrounded by this massive wall of plants. Like, actual vines and flowers growing up the side of a skyscraper. I thought it had to be fake or some kind of art installation.
Turns out it was the Oasia Hotel Downtown in Singapore, and it’s completely real. The entire forty-story building is wrapped in this red metal lattice that supports over twenty different types of climbing plants. From street level, it literally looks like someone decided to grow a vertical jungle in the middle of downtown Singapore.
This got me deep into a rabbit hole about buildings that are basically growing gardens on their walls and roofs, and honestly? It’s making me rethink everything I thought I knew about what city living has to be like.
I’ve been stuck in my tiny studio apartment for years now, dealing with basically no natural light and zero outdoor space that’s actually mine. I’ve gotten pretty good at keeping plants alive under grow lights and maximizing every inch of space I have. But these buildings are doing something completely different – they’re integrating nature into the actual structure instead of trying to add it as an afterthought.
The Parkroyal Collection Pickering, also in Singapore, has over 15,000 square meters of greenery. That’s more than twice their actual land footprint, which is wild when you think about it. They’re creating more green space by building up instead of out, using vertical surfaces and terraces to pack way more nature into a smaller urban footprint.
And it’s not just aesthetic. The temperature difference between the street level and the upper floors of these buildings is noticeable. Plants naturally cool the air, provide insulation, and create this microclimate that feels completely different from a typical glass-and-steel tower. Plus, they’re using rainwater harvesting systems to feed the gardens, so they’re actually working with natural water cycles instead of just ignoring them.
The research backs this up too. Studies show that access to greenery reduces stress, lowers blood pressure, improves cognitive function – all the stuff I’ve been trying to get from my tiny apartment plant collection, but at building scale. Energy costs drop by thirty percent or more because the plants provide natural cooling and insulation. Buildings with integrated green features also rent for more money than conventional ones, which makes sense but also highlights the equity issues I’ll get to.
Not everything works though. I’ve been reading about projects where developers jumped on the “green building” trend without actually understanding how to keep plants alive forty stories in the air. There’s a building in Miami where the vertical gardens died within months because nobody planned for wind exposure or set up proper irrigation systems. You can’t just slap some plants on a wall and call it biophilic design.
The buildings that actually work long-term use smart irrigation systems with soil moisture sensors, kind of like the fancy plant monitoring systems I’ve seen on TikTok but scaled way up. These systems automatically adjust watering based on what the plants actually need rather than just running on a timer.
One Central Park in Sydney does something even cooler – they use mirrors that track the sun to redirect natural light to plants growing on the shadowed sides of the building. It’s like the ultimate grow light setup, but using actual sunlight.
What really gets me excited is how these buildings handle outdoor space. The 25 King Street project in Brisbane has outdoor terraces on every single level. Instead of just having a lobby and maybe a rooftop deck, people can step outside at any floor and be surrounded by plants and fresh air. That’s a game-changer when you’re used to living in a box with no balcony.
This is completely different from the typical high-rise model where outdoor space only exists at ground level and maybe the roof. Instead, they’re distributing nature vertically throughout the building, creating multiple little ecosystems at different heights.
The biodiversity aspect is fascinating too. The Bosco Verticale in Milan supports over 1,600 specimens of birds and butterflies. These aren’t just buildings with plants – they’re creating actual habitat for urban wildlife while providing human housing. Birds and insects get vertical territories while residents get to wake up to actual nature instead of just concrete.
But here’s what frustrates me: most of these innovative buildings end up being luxury developments that only wealthy people can afford. Nature becomes this premium amenity instead of a basic part of good housing design. Singapore is trying to address this by requiring biophilic elements in all new construction, not just high-end projects. But cities like New York and San Francisco haven’t followed suit, so green buildings mostly remain exclusive.
As someone who’s spent years trying to make a tiny, dark apartment more livable on basically no budget, I see how access to nature gets treated as a luxury instead of a necessity. The fact that you need to pay premium rents to live in a building with decent natural light and access to green space is a systemic problem.
The regulatory barriers don’t help either. Building codes and zoning laws are written for conventional construction and don’t account for living walls or rooftop forests. Cities need to update their frameworks to make this kind of innovation easier rather than harder.
Retrofitting existing buildings offers some hope though. The Greenpoint Landing project in Brooklyn transformed old industrial buildings by adding green roofs and courtyards, proving you don’t have to start from scratch. Sometimes working with what already exists makes more sense than building new.
Technology is making these systems more feasible and less maintenance-intensive. Green building certifications like LEED and WELL are pushing developers toward biophilic solutions by rewarding health and sustainability metrics. Virtual reality even lets architects test how plant placement will work before construction begins.
The mental health benefits are what really drive this for me. Office workers who were eating lunch at their desks for years suddenly have access to multi-level gardens. Residents can look out their windows and see trees instead of concrete. These aren’t small quality-of-life improvements – they’re fundamental changes to how urban living feels.
I think about my own building and how different it would be if we had integrated green spaces instead of just that neglected rooftop we turned into a garden ourselves. What if every floor had access to outdoor terraces? What if the building itself was cooling the air naturally instead of just blasting AC all summer?
The Planted Tower in Lausanne is being designed specifically to support native plant communities that will provide habitat for local wildlife. They’re thinking about how buildings can enhance urban ecosystems instead of just extracting from them.
What excites me most is imagining cities where this becomes normal instead of exceptional. Where biophilic cities include vertical forests reaching toward the sky alongside vertical communities. Where seasonal changes play out on building facades and wildlife corridors connect green buildings.
The financial case keeps getting stronger. Properties with integrated natural features command higher rents and sale prices. Energy costs drop significantly. Buildings reduce HVAC loads through strategic plant placement and green roof installation. The return on investment makes sense even before you factor in the human health benefits.
Copenhagen shows what’s possible when city planning prioritizes ecological integration from the start. They’re incorporating nature into every new development – whether parks, green roofs, or flood-management systems. Every decision about building height, density, and placement either supports or undermines biophilic goals.
The architects and planners driving this movement are basically reimagining what urban buildings can be. Stefano Boeri’s Bosco Verticale didn’t just add plants to a building – it created a functioning vertical forest that provides human shelter while supporting urban biodiversity.
I’m particularly interested in how sustainable technologies integrate with natural systems. Smart sensors, automated irrigation, sun-tracking mirrors – technology making it easier to keep living systems alive in challenging urban environments rather than replacing them with artificial substitutes.
The momentum is definitely building. Each successful project makes the next one easier to approve and finance. As more people experience these environments firsthand, demand grows for buildings that prioritize human and ecological health alongside profit margins.
Urban planning strategies that embrace vertical nature don’t just improve individual buildings – they start transforming entire cityscapes into places where humans and nature can thrive together.
For those of us stuck in conventional apartments trying to bring nature inside through houseplants and grow lights, these buildings represent what’s possible when biophilic design gets integrated from the ground up instead of retrofitted later. They’re proof that city living doesn’t have to mean being disconnected from natural systems.
