New Environmental Frontiers in China’s First Vertical Home

Global populations have risen exponentially over the last two centuries, with numbers expected to increase past 9.8 billion in 2050 and more than 11 billion by 2100! The enormous global population has taken significant tolls on the Earth and its vital resources, expediting global warming and environmental stress. One of the most significant contributors to global warming is the occupied space and pollution generated by megacities dispersed worldwide in countries like China, India, USA, and more. Scientists have been working to develop strategies to better support growing urban populations, preventing further degradation of the environment. Vertical cities are a solution to those issues, and environmental sectors have been discussing their implementation for a long time. 

Vertical cities are a specific and purposeful redesign of how humans have lived throughout history. Instead of traditional outward expansion of cities by connecting additional infrastructure, these cities utilize the space for development above existing frameworks. Vertical cities are key to managing overpopulation and habitat degradation by confining large populations into sustainable units. By designing vertical developments, skyward cities will be able to preserve natural resources outside the city, protect critical wildlife habitats, and contribute to global environmental status. An ideal vertical city would allow people to live, work, go to school, recycle waste, and produce their food inside a single building.

Let us break down the pros and cons of designing, implementing, and operating one of these massive infrastructure projects because there are reasons why they are not popping up in every major city. The first notable benefit of establishing vertical cities is reducing natural resource acquisition based on land space and urban development. These cities can be installed within current urban boundaries and move many businesses and residential areas off the ground. Unfortunately, because these cities do not exist yet, and we do not have any current data to assess their success, designs receive large amounts of skepticism from funders.

Vertical cities are meant to host hundreds if not thousands of people, so establishing the necessary resources is vital to the building’s survival. These buildings need to be explicitly designed to deal with environmental hazards, evacuation procedures, and plans for any emergency. The biggest hurdle facing these cities is funding because there is no evidence to outweigh their costs with benefits, so installing the first of its kind in China is vital to supply research necessary for future vertical developments. 

China’s staggering 1.4 billion people have put immense stress on the country's space and resources. Most Chinese live and work inside urban developments that significantly lack the space necessary to accommodate large daily influxes of people adequately. That is why China is the first home to one of these vertical cities, designed to support 500 residents and more than 5,000 trees and shrubs on its various levels. This initial development is not meant to be an ideal vertical city but a trial into the environmental benefits of increasing urban greenery and attempting to reduce the spread of people throughout the city. 

The plants were chosen to contribute the most benefits to the region by introducing native, non-invasive species aiding atmospheric recycling of greenhouse gasses. The design is estimated to absorb more than 20 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and emit more than 10 tons of oxygen. These buildings are of paramount importance because their location inside urban settings will directly contribute to the city’s clean air. Either way, the first test of this new way of living will indicate if they are a viable and profitable solution to many of the climate changes Earth is currently facing. If successful, this type of architecture can be expected to show up in every major city around the world and reinvent how we design urban areas.