Melbourne's New Four Seasons Hotel Will Have the World's Tallest Vertical Garden — Stretching Nearly 4 Miles Into the Sky

Biophilic design — or integrating natural elements in architecture — is not a new concept, but the practice has become increasingly popular in large-scale projects. From Singapore Changi Airport's lush forest (where you can even go glamping) to China's vertical forest in Nanjing that fights air pollution and Denver's brand-new residential tower that will feature cascading plants, a water feature, and a hiking trail incorporated into its façade, biophilic designs are getting bolder and more impressive. And luxury hotels and resorts are getting on board.

Case in point? A new Four Seasons hotel will be housed in the world's tallest "greenscraper," Australia's STH BNK By Beulah. The high-end property will feature 210 rooms and offer panoramic views over Melbourne's skyline, beachfront, and Royal Botanical Gardens. Guests will be welcomed in the Sky Lobby on the 63rd floor and treated to a sprawling rooftop restaurant and bar, spa and wellness facilities, and multiple event spaces.

"This project will set a new standard for luxury in Melbourne, offering guests an exceptional Four Seasons experience set within an environment that will be unmatched in this market," Bart Carnahan, Four Seasons' president of global business development and portfolio management, said in a statement released to Travel + Leisure.

Guests of the hotel, which will be the second Four Seasons in Australia (the other is Four Seasons Hotel Sydney), will also have access to the impressive array of services and amenities from STH BNK By Beulah, which will include a childcare center, a health and wellness area, an art gallery, public green spaces, a rooftop sky garden, a 3,000-seat auditorium, experiential retail, and much more.

The new development is envisioned as a "vertical mini-metropolis," per the brand, and will comprise two towers and the tallest vertical garden in the world, extending a whopping 3.4 miles into the sky. Created by UNStudio and Cox Architecture, the eye-catching design was conceived as "a 'green spine' of vertically networked platforms, terraces and verandas […] created by the splitting open of the potential single mass at its core, thereby forming two separate high rise structures," according to UNStudio's website.

Construction of the 2,728,490-square-foot building is expected to start later this year and take approximately five more to complete. But we can already tell that staying at Four Seasons Hotel Melbourne will be worth the wait.