Will the Eiffel Tower become a giant tree?

Cover the Eiffel Tower with 378 tons of plants. The crazy idea is already a plan implemented by the Ginger Group company

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

Do you recognize it? And the Eiffel Tower, even if disguised as giant tree. The idea of ​​transforming one of the most impressive monuments in the world into a huge green lung comes from a French company, the Ginger Group, which in collaboration with the group Vinci and the architect Claude Bucher, presented the plan for make it green the symbolic monument of Francia and is now awaiting official approval from the Paris City Council.

The aim of the project, conceived by the team of Parisian engineers, is to cover the Eiffel Tower with 600 plants, also covering the structure with 12 tons of rubber tubes. The 324 meters of the monument would thus become one source of oxygen for the city. The cost of the project is around 72 million euros (97 million dollars) and in addition to changing the dress at the Tower, it would also be able to eliminate 87,8 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, also produced by the lighting of the same Eiffel Tower.

The idea, discovered and made known by Le Figaro, last Wednesday, according to the French newspaper, is unbelievable: "fou”, Crazy was the definition used. Architects and engineers have been working for over two years to give life to this special creation, which foresees, by 2012, the installation of 378 tons of plants on the Eiffel Tower. A first prototype would already be ready which, according to Le Figaro, has already been tested in an area on the outskirts of Paris, and will serve to evaluate all the technical constraints, including the weight of the vegetation on the structure.

Since the genesis of the project, a multidisciplinary group of scientists and technicians has worked together to assess and monitor carbon emissions, and the energy systems to be installed on the Tour.

According to what has been established up to now by the plan, the plants will be inserted in some "bag”, That is, inside suspended nets made of hemp, in turn connected to the metal frames of the tower. Irrigation will be carried out through a network of 12 tons of rubber hoses.

Another gem. The method used in the arrangement of the vegetation is certainly not accidental. The effect for those looking from below is that of vegetation which increases as you go up in height.

Yet another flagship of the Parisian capital, which is confirmed to be increasingly sustainable. By 2013, in fact, the Eiffel Tower will be dressed in green, thanks to the project by Moatti-Rivière, which will carry out an environmental redevelopment of the monument, using solar thermal, thewind power, a system of rainwater collection andLED lighting.

Greener than that?

Francesca Mancuso