Though the city of Bangkok, Thailand has expanded its green spaces considerably over the last decade, this city of over eight million residents still lacks enough parks, forests, and nature preserves to go around. Not only do green spaces provide shade and lower temperatures in heat-absorbing urban areas ? they also filter out pollutants and dust, clean our air, and just plain make us feel better. Some scientists even believe that spending time in nature restores and refreshes our brains, just like sleep. We evolved to be a part of our natural environment, after all, so it?s easy to see how a lack of connection to living vegetation can really wear us down over time.

Instead of waiting for government officials to jump on the green space trend, some city dwellers are taking matters into their own hands by turning their homes into lush oases of living plants. When you have access to a yard, creating your own private paradise is a lot easier ? but what if you live in an apartment tower" For Bangkok-based architecture studio Apostrophy?s, the answer was building a 25-foot-tall vertical garden stretching up to a spacious skylight, making use of the full height of the condominium.
Deliberately oversized furniture, such as an extra-long dining table, complements the stark black-and-white color scheme, which is in turn accented by gold vertical shelving. Each floor has its own theme, with the bottom level representing the earth and the origins of life, the second representi...