In Italian, the phrase “Bosco Verticale” literally translates to “vertical forest.” The two Bosco Verticale Towers, designed by the  Stefano Boeri Architectural Firm, are currently being built in the extremely polluted city of Milan, Italy. These towers are stunning structures that incorporate both structural engineering and landscape architecture disciplines. Littered with various trees, shrubs and plants – over 21,000 total – the towers aim to serve the high-end housing community while simultaneously reducing the city’s alarmingly high carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. On paper this design seems extremely plausible and potentially groundbreaking; but one must ask the question of whether or not we are forcing a notion of “green design” onto our structures. Are we merely trying to disguise the dreadfulness of our man-made structures with a natural façade? Or is this truly a beautiful and necessary fusion of the built environment with natural systems?

A good place to start while discussing the Bosco Verticale Towers is the positive impacts of the entire system. Obviously, the decrease in CO2 levels is amazing. Just one tree can store up to 48 pounds of CO2 a year and produce about 260 pounds of oxygen (O2) a year. This is a great solution to the poor air quality in Milan. The amount of plants on this building also increases shading, which implies the reduction of internal heating and cooling energy usage due to thermal absorption in the plants. This building also gives the city a more aesthetically pleasing look and feel.

Following the introduction of plants and trees is the creation of a certain microclimate.  This microclimate is simply a filter which removes certain dust particles present in the air (a natural property of plants). A cool analogy here is that the two towers will act as “green lungs” for the city.

The introduction of such a huge engineering project pumps massive amounts of capital back into the city of Milan — both in terms of engineering contracts and increased global awareness of the city. So the building itself, in addition to being a sustainability poster child, will also aid in the socioeconomic situation in the city of Milan, and Italy itself.

So now the burning question must be asked — what’s wrong with the Bosco Verticale Towers? For starters, some would argue that the towers aren’t truly a green system. The building still requires massive amounts of cooling and heating electricity and still uses millions of gallons of water each day (without an efficient recyclable water system and a poor rain collection system). Are the trees merely a cover-up for the lack of solving these problems?

The towers are also potentially dangerous. Milan is a city subjected to medium to sometimes high winds (especially at elevated locations). This is troubling as the trees will be subjected to high forces and some will break, causing massive damage.

Also, the very notion of planting trees within the building is troubling, because it goes against the natural growth process of trees. Limiting a tree’s roots will yield either a malnourished or undergrown tree. The limitation of the trees’ root system could be the initial downfall of all the trees on the Bosco Verticale Towers.

With both the pros and cons in mind, the introduction of the vertical forest seems to be logical and innovative, but there are potential issues. Green engineering is rooted (no pun intended) in pushing the boundaries of assimilating natural systems with built systems, and Bosco Verticale does that perfectly. Yes, there are cons to the current design, but the benefits and environmental potential of the towers outweigh these cons. The possibility of a beautiful, oxygen-producing, energy-reducing, vertical housing complex is an amazing engineering feat, and certain risks must be taken to see the ideas come to fruition. The architects and engineers at Stefano Boeri, in addition to the engineering board of directors for the city of Milan, have made a calculated risk to go forth with the tower. This risk is pushing the boundaries of the green engineering community. This risk is generally supported by the engineering, architecture and “big-building enthusiasts” around the world. The Bosco Verticale Tower is paving the way toward sustainable design on a very large-scale.

BRENT LUND can be reached at brlund@ucdavis.edu

Graphic by CA Aggie Graphic Design Team

Photo by CA Aggie Photo Team

On Jan. 8, President Obama announced a plan to make the first two years of community college (CC) free for students in America who maintain a 2.5 GPA at their CC. This is based off a similar program already in place in Tennessee, called Tennessee Promise, which will begin with the graduating class of 2015. Participating states will offer 25 percent of the total funding to all students attending a community college and the federal government will providing the rest.

The Editorial Board looks forward to the prospect of free CC, and believes that if it is implemented correctly, this will be a great opportunity for millions of students in the country to have access to higher education. Amidst the UC tuition increases that were approved last year, it is refreshing to see that the federal government is considering taking action in helping students pay for college.

We recognize the potential benefits of this plan. With the first two years of CC free, students could save up to $3,800 in fees every year, lifting a significant burden of debt. This will also help more students across the country pursue a degree that they otherwise may not have been able to.

However, while this idea appears great in theory, we are worried about whether or not it will succeed in practice. It is still unclear how this plan will be implemented and where exactly the money from the state and federal government will come from. If there was a surplus of funds available for education, why was UC tuition raised so recently?

Along with that, the effect that this plan will have on overcrowding within colleges should be taken into account. As Obama said in his speech, if students who are willing to work hard to meet the GPA requirement have the option to get two years of college for free, they will most likely take advantage of that. Because of this, it seems like a high possibility that many community colleges across the country will become over-enrolled and not be able to provide enough resources to their students. Tennessee community colleges are already preparing for the much higher levels of enrollment. UCs and CSUs are already impacted, and it seems possible that this plan will create a similar issue in community colleges and then lead to an overabundance of transfers in four-year universities.

With that being said, we are excited and hopeful that this plan will be implemented well, and will be advantageous for the millions of students in America who cannot afford to go straight to a four-year university out of high school. To see that the federal government is considering college students and is trying to take action to reduce the hardships of student debt is a step in the right direction. Placing value in our education helps validate our experiences and create a smarter America.

Graphic by Jennifer Wu

You’re a UC Davis student, tired and hungry, so spoiled by the ridiculously close proximity of your dorm or apartment to campus that it’s actually become far. So you’re not going to go on a five-minute bike ride to your room. You don’t want your cup of noodles or some microwavable mac and cheese you bought five months ago on your first and probably last trip to Target (because that is also just way too far now). You’re not going to eat downtown because you don’t make money. You’re not going to cook because you don’t cook.

So you’re going to go to the Coffee House, of course. Your true purpose of being there is to get something to eat between Psych 1 and that other class you take, and maybe say hello to that person you might have met one time at a party or class or anywhere or nowhere. You thought this hour break was a good idea during registration, not sure if you wanted to sit through two hours of class. For the first 12 years of your education you had seven hours of class five days a week, but that’s long in the past.

Now here comes the classic first part of the Coffee House paradox: You don’t know anyone at the CoHo right now. You are holding your Tex Mex burrito, walking from one end to the other, looking for someone who will not be too awkward to approach, but you can’t find anyone. Now you’ve reached the Wellman side, and you know what that means: You’re completely and utterly alone.

So you have some options here, many of which are based on how you want to appear to the people at the CoHo. However, this is vain and stupid, because you’ve already established that they’re all complete strangers to you. You can either double back and make the walk of shame, though it’s definitely not as shameful because you’re pretending to text or checking Instagram with the hand not holding your still uneaten burrito. Or you can act like you just remembered something, and take a quick step backwards and speedwalk to the other side like you meant to do it. This is my personal favorite — just make sure you are convincing.

Here are some more solutions to problem 1:

1. Bring your food outside to the tables, there are plenty of people who want to talk to you (and get you to join CALPIRG)
2. Sit on the Quad pretending to be earthy and not upset that you’re alone. Definitely not.
3. Go up to one of those people who take a whole six-seater bench to themselves
4. Sit with a table of older, professor-looking people. They might be professors and your parents will be proud.
5. Sit by yourself, because you are I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T (do you know what that means)?

Now, the second part of this Coffee House paradox: You’re still the same UC Davis student, but on top of that, you have a midterm in two hours. You may be the type of person who’s already studied for a week, or the type of person who is about to open your notes for the first time. Either way, you’re pretty sure you are not ready. So you make the same lap around the Coffee House, this time just searching for an open seat with an outlet (yeah, right), but don’t worry now, no one is judging you because you have to study. If they were judging you, then it would already be too late, because you likely haven’t showered in a while and are what society would call gross. If you aren’t, and are really dressed up and looking good, then I am judging you.

So finally, you find this seat, you throw on your movie soundtrack Pandora and get to work. You are in the zone, starting to get more confident, and you feel a tap on your shoulder. Who is it? None other than that friend you were looking for last week when you wanted to hangout. Not just one of them, though, all of those friends you were sure you didn’t even have are here now! They just did that CoHo lap you were doing last week, but they had much more luck and found you! So this happens 10 times in the next hour and a half and your productivity is low. It’s funny how those noise-cancelling headphones you got at the same Target trip aren’t very effective when you have to keep taking them off.

So now you have 30 minutes left, and you put this real stressed out look on your face, either because you want people to see your struggle and leave you alone, or because that’s just how people’s faces look 30 minutes before a test. At this point, however, it’s too late, because it’s some kind of lunch rush at the CoHo and you really just can’t help but people-watch. You wish people-watching was your major because you look up literally every time anyone anywhere near you makes any movement. At this point, it is far too late, and you have to go to class with minimal knowledge and pray for a low curve. Good news for you, the curve will definitely be low, because you are not the only tired and hungry UC Davis student.

Places to avoid problem 2:

1. The library, duh
2. The fireplace room in the MU: there’s a fireplace
3. The SCC: they have whiteboards and coffee and outlets and hope
4. The Quad: relaxing, and you may get a good Snapchat out of it
5. Your own room: I know your desk currently makes you a candidate for “Hoarders” but throw that stuff away

The UCD Files is your weekly in depth look at our campus and the lifestyle that comes with it, featuring an occasional dropping of knowledge from a senior who has experienced it all.

Feel Free to send questions, comments, or anything you would like to see in future articles to ADAM MARX at almarx@ucdavis.edu.

Graphic by CA Aggie Graphic Design Team

Photo by CA Aggie Photo Team

The American government has several significant achievements in science under its belt. These include the development of the atomic bomb and landing men on the moon. Having seemingly conquered the world outside us, newer efforts have turned to the world inside us. One such project was the mapping the human genome. The trend has continued with the Obama Administration’s BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, in which a large group of medical doctors and PhDs will utilize $4.6 billion over 12 years toward brain research.

Since becoming effective in early 2014, the program has been marching toward its simple goal of mapping every neuron in the human brain. Well, maybe not so simple. Unlike with the Human Genome Project before it, neurons aren’t being mapped with As, Ts, Cs, Gs and Us. What’s being recorded is their activity, which is a hard and in many ways subjective thing to define. Every brain on earth can’t be mapped, so scientists will have to take samples to create the typical human brain. Since every brain is different, and brains change as we age, things aren’t set to be perfect with these results.

Perfection aside, the goal is to make vast improvements in the understanding of the human brain and its conditions. The real payoff would be better mental health practices in American society, on both a personal and medical level.

Of all the goals Obama has set for us, I feel that understanding the brain is his most lofty and also the most unlikely to succeed. Defining what activity a neuron is performing sounds impossible enough, but there’s also the aspect of selecting brains representative of the wide swath of personalities and mental conditions. Whose brain could represent the average human?

Obama himself has an interesting mind. It’s sharp, witty, warm and compassionate. Or at least Obama himself comes across with these traits. When he addresses the nation, is he sharing a piece of his mind? Or is he just using a piece of his brain? Is there a difference? Here’s a quote about Obama written years ago by his then-girlfriend Genevieve Cook: “But I feel that you carefully filter everything in your mind and heart —

legitimate, admirable, really … But there’s something also there of smoothed veneer, of guardedness … I’m left with this feeling of … a bit of a wall — the veil.” Even a lover couldn’t get past the image of Obama that the public sees. What does a warm, compassionate “veneer” hide? What could results from Obama’s initiative tell him about himself?

I wouldn’t pick on a president without a reason. The presidency of the United States is perhaps the most cognitively demanding job in the world. Yet, if we look to Obama for an example of how to think, we’re left with veils, mysteries. The leader of the free world, however, is not different from his followers. We are all mysterious and use the veils that society has given us to maintain some kind of integrity or order in our lives. In order to change ourselves, change our brains, or both, we need to be able to see what part of us is superficial and which is our true self. While that may seem easy, scientists have had less of a go at it than most Eastern religions. It seems unlikely that the 21st century will be remembered for creating a new path to Nirvana.

I’d like to see the BRAIN Initiative be successful. There are vast areas of mental health care that could greatly benefit from even modest improvement. The money will be well spent if it can provide us with a collective net gain of mental well-being.

PAUL BEREZOVSKY can be contacted at pbberezovsky@ucdavis.edu.

Graphic by CA Aggie Graphic Design Team

Photo by CA Aggie Photo Team