If you have ever been presented with the task of landscaping an entire apartment complex it can seem large and daunting. You need to create landscaping that looks good and is also affordable to maintain, seeking out hearty plants that won’t be easily harmed by the many residents that live there. You also want to create a look that captures potential tenants’ attention, making them want to live there over anywhere else. Some apartment complexes are using potted plants to do the trick alone, and the neatest part is that it’s working.
Apartment Landscaping Ideas
While suburban apartment complexes have sprawling grounds to design, city apartments rely largely on potted plants and hanging planters to create a burst of nature where only concrete dwells. In either environment you want to avoid residents trampling over landscaping by incorporating easy to access walkways, thinking of people before plants. Trees can be a great source of comfort, adding beauty, shade, and a durable plant you can count on to withstand the test of time. If you are trying to keep costs as low as possible, look for trees that do not require frequent tree trimming services, such as an Amur maple tree or a Japanese barberry. One apartment landscaping idea is to place bricks around the roots of trees, within this safe space you can plant a bushel of flowers that are less likely to be trampled or peed on by dogs, thanks to the added protection of the brick border.
Undoubtedly, potted plants are extremely popular for decorating apartment complex landscaping as the pot itself provides a decorative protective barrier. Some apartments around the world are using potted plants to differentiate their domain from anywhere else. Two of these buildings include the Tower of Trees in Italy, and the Flower Tower in Paris.
The Flower Tower Takes Potted Plants To A Whole New Level
Coined, “one of the best places to live in Paris,” the Flower Tower is a truly remarkable site. The only plant used throughout the entire jaw-dropping display is bamboo, 380 bamboo potted plants to be exact. Every corner, side, and angle of the Flower Tower has a bamboo plant in place, making this collection of apartment homes look like an overgrown parking garage from afar, although upon closer inspection the design details come alive. In person, people say that the building appears almost magical. Other passersby’s can’t help but look up in fear, thinking that with one good shove any one of the hundreds of large potted plants could fall on their head. Thankfully, the landscape designers behind this high-end apartment (see here) thought of everything, including preventing dangerous situations from occurring by securing potted plants into the concrete ledges of the building. None of these white flowerpots, all measuring 1.2 meters high, are going anywhere—except up. Bamboo grows incredibly fast, meaning this building likely needs lots of trimming, we just want to see how they do it! Living in Paris is undoubtedly expensive, and building a complex that revolves around potted plants and mammoth trees spanning the entire 300+ feet of the building is no easy feat. This warrants a price tag close to 5 million US dollars to live in this concrete Bamboo jungle.
Towers of Trees Apartment in Milan, Italy
Another apartment that is using plants in unconventional ways to stand out is the Bosco Verticale, the double building apartment complex towers over the city of Milan, boasting more foliage than you can likely imagine! If you purchase an apartment at the Towers of Trees you will also get your own huge garden, which is practically floating in mid-air, and includes giant trees and shrubs to block prying eyes, while providing shade to your apartment and a rather tranquil feel most sky rise apartments don’t posses. In places this apartment spans as tall as 365 feet, and includes 27 floors of living space. Using a unique design pattern, from the bottom up to the tip-top there 730 trees, 11,000 plants, and 5,000 shrubs.
This was no easy feat and the last thing developers wanted was to complete the project only to find the plants weren’t able to survive—in which case this lively looking building full of plants would look dead, uninhabitable—or worse, that someone would get hurt. One of the designers on this project, Michele Brunello says that safety was a huge factor throughout the design process, “’If a tree was blown down in the wind from a great height this could be a huge problem.” Therefore, designers and plant professionals were all called in to assess the perfect plants for each side and angle of the building. In other words, not every apartment is equipped with the same potted plants, instead home buyers have the option of picking what type of wildlife they want to look at everyday. An apartment at this complex isn’t cheap, it will cost you over 2 million American dollars to call the Towers of Trees your new home.