An hour’s drive from Malaysia’s dense forests, a new residential complex brings native greenery to Kuala Lumpur’s modern skyline. Le Nouvel KLCC comprises two slender towers–43 and 48 stories–by Ateliers Jean Nouvel that rise above the capital’s main business district, Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC). To create the vertical gardens, French landscape architect and botanist Patrick Blanc applied a grid of stainless-steel cables across the buildings’ glass facades and threaded them with high- and low-climbing varieties of liana vines. Because the range of factors affecting plant life–including insects, sunlight, and intense winds–vary from level to level, Blanc had to use 243 species of the plant to accommodate the disparities. In addition to the veil the vines form, a lily pond next to the swimming pool on the seventh floor, which joins the two towers, is an oasis of serenity within the bustling metropolis.