The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) Awards Jury selected Bosco Verticale, Milan, as the overall “2015 Best Tall Building Worldwide” at the 14th Annual CTBUH International Best Tall Building Awards Symposium, Ceremony & Dinner, celebrated November 12 at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.
The jury applauded Bosco Verticale, which translates to “Vertical Forest,” for its extraordinary implementation of vegetation at such scale and height. The building supplants traditional cladding materials with screens of greenery such that the plants act as an extension of the tower’s exterior envelope, creating a distinct microclimate. The building’s intensive “living façade,” incorporating numerous trees and 90+ species of vegetation, is an active interface to the surrounding environment. Along with creating a beautiful appearance, the living green façade concurrently stimulates interaction with the surrounding environment while also protecting against it, in fact enhancing the sustainability of the project. The jury called this exploration of the viability of greenery at such heights groundbreaking.
The final decision was the culmination of a nearly year-long juried selection process considering 123 entries representing a total of 33 countries. In July, the CTBUH Awards Jury named a winner from each of the four competing regions in the world: Americas, Asia & Australasia, Europe, and Middle East & Africa. The Regional Winners were One World Trade Center, New York City, United States; CapitaGreen, Singapore; Bosco Verticale, Milan, Italy; Burj Mohammed Bin Rashid Tower, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Senior representatives of each of the winners gave presentations at the Awards Symposium at Hermann Hall, with the jury convening immediately afterwards to determine an overall winner. IIT Dean Wiel Arets then had the honor of awarding the title of overall “Best Tall Building Worldwide” to Bosco Verticale at an elegant Ceremony & Dinner held in Mies van der Rohe’s iconic masterpiece S.R. Crown Hall.
