The New Yorker has published an article by Eric Klinenberg titled “The End of the European Summer,” dedicated to the recent heat waves that have hit major European cities, in which the Bosco Verticale is cited as a possible example of a Nature-Based Solution for countering the urban heat island effect.
The journalist devoted part of the article to his visit to Milan, to Bosco Verticale, and to the Stefano Boeri Architetti studio, where he interviewed Stefano Boeri on the subject.
During the meeting, Boeri reiterated that vertical forests respond not only to an aesthetic logic, but also offer concrete ecological benefits: tree canopies absorb CO2 and fine particulate matter, lower the internal temperature of buildings, and reduce the energy needs for cooling. The architect also recounted the origins of Forestami, the civic initiative he founded in 2019 with the goal of planting three million trees in the Milan metropolitan area by 2030, stressing that it is not so much the number of trees that makes the difference, but rather the extent of their canopies and the resulting shade they produce.
Klinenberg also visited Parco Nord Milano, where he met Forestami’s Maria Chiara Pastore and Riccardo Gini, as well as the Biblioteca degli Alberi (Library of Trees), highlighting the difficulties involved in selecting tree species that are more resilient to climate change and in finding space in densely built urban centers.
The article then broadens its scope to other European cities — Barcelona and Paris in particular — where administrators and urban planners are experimenting with similar strategies (superblocks, “green axes,” de-paving, climate shelters) to address increasingly frequent and lethal heat waves, painting an overall picture of a continent forced to rapidly rethink its cities around three ancient allies against the heat: water, soil, and shade.
To read the full article: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/08/24/the-end-of-the-european-summer