A Green Light for Central Park
Arguably one of the most innovative residential-commercial projects to go up in Sydney recently, I want to focus today on Central Park’s two key elements of its sustainable significance: The Green Wall and The Heliostat. Neither of these ideas are particularly new, the heliostat’s reflection into an atrium going as far back as Foster’s HSBC Building in the mid-1980s, though certainly no green wall as yet can match One Central Park’s scale.
Externally, its distinctive green walls, originally not particularly sightly and seemingly solid have now grown out into the struts and balconies, creating a much lighter sense and in fact, has become an effective architectural feature in breaking up the solidity and monotony of the glass walls. Designed by innovative Landscape architect Patrick Blanc, he has employed carefully selected local flora to allow for a colourful and very much Sydney palette of plants. These walls have also become a popular tourist attraction, with many visitors surprised at the wall system, often smelling the flowers and touching the plants to ‘make sure they are actually real’. This new materiality has certainly benefited the cityscape and I believe that it has created a unique and potentially sustainable urban typology for our high-rise buildings.
Sydneysiders walking along One Central Park and pausing to look at the now fully grown green walls. (Chan, 2014)
The Green Walls extending all the way up the building with vines entwining along other parts of the facade. (Chan, 2014)
Dripping water at 12 Litres per hour five times a day (Jones, 2014) however, it is hoped that this building will use methods of water collection to reduce its footprint. At the same time however, this building shows a clear attempt to balance passive cooling, with these gardens definitely reducing heat that would otherwise have been absorbed by the concrete walls.
Process of light being reflected down into the Atrium, individual mirror panels can be electronic adjusted for different times of day and sun-angles. (Edited by Chan, 2014)
Furthermore its heliostat also introduces the possibility of returning light into our darker parts of the city and follows in the footsteps of Foster’s HSBC Building in Hong Kong, bringing light into an atrium to reduce electricity usage. The spaces internally are in fact extremely comfortable; there is indeed a sense of calm ambiance which our usually fluorescently lit shopping malls simply do not possess. A light layer of water over the roof means that there is a constant and gentle flickering, creating a soft lighting and overall, I would say this heliostat represents an ideal intersection between experience and innovation.
The internal escalator and atrium space,
soft light reflecting from the heliostat above.
(Chan, 2014)
Aerial view back up to the Heliostat, just visible as the bright source of light. The milky layer of the atrium glass is the thin layer of water which softens the light. (Chan, 2014).
While I have offered nothing but praise, I do feel it is necessary to remember that this is a primarily steel and concrete construction and certainly has more glazing over its apartments than more typical typologies. Whether the Green Wall’s ability to balance out the large levels of light penetration as a result of the increased glazing remains to be seen so I feel further study is needed before we can deem this project a sustainable success. Overall however, at least for now, I would say this project is a clear step in the right direction, adapting our desire for urban living with a more sustainable and innovative approach to expressing architecture and balancing thermal comfort.
References
Ann Jones. “Extreme Horticulture Greens the City.” (21 March 2014). Retrieved Online 2 April 2014 Via:
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/offtrack/vertical-gardening/5333486?WT.mc_id=Innovation_Radio-RadioNational-Offtrack%7CExtremeHorticultureGroupAPhoto%2CGroupBLink_FBP%7Cabc
Patrick Blanc. “One Central Park Sydney.” Retrieved Online 2 April 2014 Via:
http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com/realisations/sydney/one-central-park-sydney