Mexico City's Anillo Periférico, the major ring road that carries traffic around the capital, was never designed to be a garden. For years, its concrete support columns stood bare above some of the city's busiest and most polluted roads, forming a vast grey landscape through densely populated parts of the capital. Architect Fernando Ortiz Monasterio saw an opportunity to change that. In 2016, he launched Via Verde, a project designed to transform highway infrastructure into vertical gardens by covering concrete columns with living plants. The idea was to combine urban greening with infrastructure that already existed, rather than requiring large amounts of additional land. What began as a public campaign eventually developed into a large-scale urban landscaping project, with thousands of plants installed along sections of the city's road network. The result is a striking transformation: columns that once contributed little beyond supporting the highway now form stretches of greenery through one of the world's largest cities.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
