The organic building

The goal of this project was to create a new typology, a vertical garden. The nine-story building’s red steel panel exterior incorporates a system of small bays with controlled irrigation and drainage that allow for plants and trees (currently over 80 varieties) to grow across the façade. Such an endeavor was unheard of at the time, but similar efforts (walls of vegetation, urban roof gardens) are currently increasingly popular. As a mark of this design’s prescient innovation and ongoing success, Osaka declared the Organic Building a civic landmark. Gaetano Pesce, 1991