MILAN - A shopping centre near Milan is claiming an unusual record - the biggest vertical garden in the world, covering a surface of 1,263 square metres (13,600 square feet) with a total of 44,000 plants. The huge garden, which was inaugurated in 2010 but was only certified as a record this week, was designed by architect Francesco Bollani who headed up a creative team that included an architecture studio from Montpellier in France. “It took us a year to grow the plants in a greenhouse and 90 days to build the facade,” Bollani told AFP. “It was like building a giant Lego!” The previous record was held by a Madrid garden covering 844 square metres.