Edificio Santalaia,

the building that grows on you,

literally, situated in the middle of Bogota, Colombia, it is considered one of the most amazing urban gardens ever created, with over 33,000 Sq. feet of plants covering the building’s 11 stories (9 above ground and 2 underground), this is the world’s largest vertical garden,

 the result of a collaboration between Spanish green designers Paisajismo Urbano and Colombian company Groncol, this stunning vertical garden was completed in December 2015, after eight months of planning, and another eight months of hard work,

the vertical garden consists of 115,000 plants of 10 species and 5 different families, selected by Ignacio Solano, head of Paisajismo Urbano, and his team, during an expedition into Colombia’s Chocó rain-forest,

one of the many fascinating things about the building is the use of a patented system made up of over 40 irrigation sectors that are automatically regulated according to humidity and solar radiation, the system is also designed to recycle all the leftover water flowing through the living walls of the Edificio Santalaia, as well as the wastewater generated by its human inhabitants,

the 115,000 plants living on the walls of Edificiao Santalaia have an even greater purpose, according to Paisajismo Urbano, “a vertical garden of this size is capable of producing the oxygen needed by more than 3,100 people a year , processing about 775 kilograms of heavy metals, filtering more than 2,000 tons of harmful gases and catching more than 400 kilograms of dust,” their website claims, the 115,000 plants compensate for the carbon footprint of 700 people, and ensure the air cleansing for the PMM emissions of 745 cars, with so many good things going for it I wonder if we will see more buildings like this springing up in the future?