Check Out the World's Largest Living Wall

A shopping mall in Italy is home to the world’s largest "living wall," which has even made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Covering 13,594 square feet, the vertical garden near Milan bursts with more than 44,000 colorful mosses, flowers and other vegetation.

The wall cuts down on the mall’s energy consumption, cooling it during the hot Italian summer months and insulating it during the cooler winter. The plants also absorb noise, improve air quality, and counteracts some car emissions from the parking lot.

It cost about $1.3 million to build. "It took us a year to grow the plants in a greenhouse and 90 days to build the facade. It was like building a giant Lego," architect Francesco Bollani told the Daily Mail.

The next biggest vertical garden is a four-story wall that’s in the center of Madrid.

A 27-story "vertical forest" is also going up in Milan, which features apartment buildings covered in plants and trees. It’s under construction as part of the BioMilano green belt that will surround the city.

Another example of a living wall is Kyocera’s "green curtains,"which save energy and produce food.

In his visualization of a self-sufficient city, Architect Michael Sorkin visualizes NYC as covered in green.