Nanjing, China, suffers from severe pollution, but a green solution is coming. Stefano Boeri Architects is building two "vertical forest" towers in the city, replicating its successful Milan prototype to help clean the air.

Scheduled to be completed in 2018, the vertical forests are designed to “regenerate local biodiversity” and the two towers will be “characterized by the interchange of green tanks and balconies.”

It will include 600 tall trees and 500 medium-sized trees from 23 local species, and 2,500 cascading plants and shrubs, which will provide “25 tons of CO2 absorption each year and will produce about 60 kg of oxygen per day,” according to Stefano Boeri.

The smaller tower of the two is slated for a 247-room Hyatt Hotel, and the mixed-use building will “host commercial, recreational and educative functions, including multi-brands shops, a food market, restaurants, conference hall and exhibition spaces.” The larger tower will house a museum, private rooftop club and fittingly, a green architecture school.

lans are underway to bring the design into other pollution-ridden cities like Shanghai, Liuzhou, and Guizhou in the near future.