Are they buildings or forests?

Here’s one way to offset a hotel and office building’s carbon emissions: stick 3600 plants, trees and shrubs on the sides of it.

A new Hyatt Hotel and neighbouring office tower in Nanjing, China, will feature walls of greenery known as ‘vertical forests’ that almost completely cover the buildings’ facades.

About 600 tall trees, 500 medium-sized trees and 2500 cascading plants and shrubs will cover 6000sqm of the two buildings’ outer walls, which is expected to soak up 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

About 6000sqm of trees and shrubs will cover the buildings’ exteriors.

The taller tower, standing at 200m high, will comprise 28 floors of offices as well as a museum, a green architecture school and private club on the rooftop.

The smaller tower will be 108m tall and will include the 247-room Hyatt, a swimming pool and a huge podium level with shops, a food market, restaurants, conference hall and exhibition spaces.

The project will feature an office building (right) as well as a Hyatt hotel (left), both shrouded in trees and plants.

The design, by Italian architect Stefano Boeri, is the first of its type to be built in Asia and is expected to be completed in 2018.