Qiyi City Forest Garden in Chengdu, China, was billed as an ?eco paradise,? but a mosquito infestation has kept residents from moving in. | Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Bloodsuckers overran a tower in China. Does this mean the whole idea is bad" We asked an expert to weigh in. Most apartment towers feel far removed from the natural world. For this reason, seeing a skyscraper that?s alive with plants and trees seems both futuristic and surreally inviting. Wouldn?t it be amazing to have your own Eden in the air" It?s a fantasy that?s fueled such projects as Stefano Boeri?s Bosco Verticale and Nanjing Green Towers, Koichi Takada?s Urban Forest, and dozens of other verdant architectural concepts. This week, Thomas Heatherwick, the man behind the Vessel, unveiled a design for one in Singapore that?s literally named Eden. It seems like an urban paradise, but this cautionary tale from Chengdu ? the capital of the Western Chinese province of Sichuan ? may temper our excitement. Chengdu has made it a mission to become a garden city of sorts. The Qiyi City Forest Garden ? an eight-tower housing development ? was billed as an ?eco paradise.? Each of the 826 units (which have all sold) has its own plant-filled balcony that looks like an overgrown back yard in the sky. But here?s the catch: mosquitoes, and lots of them. They love the gardens ? and they also love sucking the blood of people who live in them. The infestation is so bad that fewer than a dozen families h...