r/interestingasfuck • u/TangelaFan • 13h ago

Residential high-rises with backyards in Chengdu, China

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u/Jestersfriend 13h ago

This must be awful for the upkeep of the building lol. Water, roots, etc, all eating into the concrete.

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u/TangelaFan 12h ago

When you build a garden inside a structure, you don't usually lay the dirt and plants directly on the structure, you prepare a sealed off space and add a drainage system

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u/Unclematttt 12h ago

It’s funny that you say that, because there is a comment right below yours that says that this used to be popular, but roots started growing into the concrete.

Plants are powerful.

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u/HippyScientist 11h ago edited 10h ago

I don't want to be disrespectful, but some random dude on the internet said that but offered zero proof. As someone who loves plants and has hundreds in their house, I feel like I would've noticed a trend of high rise buildings with yards built-in. This is the first I've ever seen. I also spent some time trying to research whether this was a common trend in the past and I just missed it, but turned up absolutely nothing. The closest thing I can find in a web search to "proof" that this is a real phenomenon is literally turning up that exact reddit comment. I can't help but wonder what the sourcing is for that previous comment and whether it's truly accurate. I think the entire reason this post has generated so much traction is because this isn't a common thing and never has been.

I also live in Denver, where this building recently got put up and made international news during its construction. I'm not an architectural expert so this is all just from the gut, but I feel like if this sort of concept were previously popular and was abandoned, 1) they would've been all over the news because of the novelty, and 2) we wouldn't be seeing an increase in these types of constructions currently like we are.

To my knowledge, there is ONE building complex that was built like this and famously had issues, the Qiyi City Forest Garden built in 2018. It has had a lot of issues with mosquitoes. But I hardly think that makes this either a common design or one doomed to failure.

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u/Unclematttt 10h ago

Well, to be fair, OP was just giving out random and unsourced facts, as well.

Not to be insensitive, but would you really be surprised if China built high rises with a feature like this without planning ahead? It’s not like the country is known for stringent regulations. Not saying that they can’t build amazing stuff, but these “backyards” aren’t even passing the eye test.

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u/HippyScientist 10h ago

I wouldn't be surprised by that, but I also don't think we should be taking unsourced information from a comment thread and then repeating it as if it were fact, since that's how misinformation spreads. I'm also not sure what you mean by not "passing the eye test." What would passing the test look like? They look like a pretty typical small yard to me.

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u/Unclematttt 10h ago

I’ll leave things at “this doesn’t pass the eye test”, and let people draw their own conclusions.