![]() Better yet: allow the residents to pick the plants they want to grow. Meanwhile, the plants themselves, which were chosen for their noise-reducing and pollution-absorbing traits, are overgrown - providing lots of shade for the mosquitoes to thrive in.Ī better way to do it, according to Beyers, would be to pick dwarf plants that won’t grow and become overgrown so quickly. The balconies themselves likely don’t have proper drainage, which means the water is pooling and standing stagnant. Beyers, who looked at images and video of the Qiyi City Forest Garden, believes that the plants are growing in containers on the balconies, which are collecting water. Mosquitoes love water, and Chengdu’s humid climate and months-long monsoon seasons offer plenty of it. If it’s manicured, someone has to do the manicuring.” “They were touting it as a manicured garden outside on your deck. “You can’t have a garden without a gardener,” Beyers says. The problem in Chengdu is partly a result of bad design, but mostly a clear case of neglect. They didn’t think about the maintenance.” “Just because it looks cool, absorbs CO2, is a noise buffer, and offers psychological benefits, doesn’t mean you don’t have to do it properly,” Beyers says. ![]() Beyers has also designed a number of rooftop and terrace gardens across NYC, and, according to him, the short of it is: It’s not an inherently terrible idea, but it has to be done right. So, is this a good idea gone wrong? Or was it just poorly thought out to begin with? To answer some of our questions, we talked to Daryl Beyers, a landscape architect with over 20 years of experience, an instructor at the New York Botanical Garden, and the author of The New Gardener’s Handboook. The infestation is so bad that fewer than a dozen families have moved in. ![]() They love the gardens - and they also love sucking the blood of people who live in them. But here’s the catch: mosquitoes, and lots of them. The Qiyi City Forest Garden - an eight-tower housing development - was billed as an “eco paradise.” Each of the 826 units (which have all sold) has its own plant-filled balcony that looks like an overgrown back yard in the sky. It seems like an urban paradise, but this cautionary tale from Chengdu - the capital of the Western Chinese province of Sichuan - may temper our excitement.Ĭhengdu has made it a mission to become a garden city of sorts. This week, Thomas Heatherwick, the man behind the Vessel, unveiled a design for one in Singapore that’s literally named Eden. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have your own Eden in the air? It’s a fantasy that’s fueled such projects as Stefano Boeri’s Bosco Verticale and Nanjing Green Towers, Koichi Takada’s Urban Forest, and dozens of other verdant architectural concepts. For this reason, seeing a skyscraper that’s alive with plants and trees seems both futuristic and surreally inviting. Most apartment towers feel far removed from the natural world.
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