Park life

This Issue This is a part of the Building for wellbeing feature

By - , Build 183

Urban living is a fact of life. It could be the reflection caused by the COVID-19 pandemic or climate change, but there’s a growing understanding that we need to green our cities. One development in Sydney has taken this idea and reached for the sky with it.

THE NOISE, THE TRAFFIC, the dust and the sheer crush of people – city living can be stressful. But does it have to be that way? What if the convenience of a home where everything is near at hand was combined with a leafy green environment that improves health and wellbeing?

That’s what residents of One Central Park in central Sydney are enjoying as part of Central Park, a master-planned urban village developed over 7 years on the site of the former Carlton brewery. Near Central Railway station, the University of Technology and the adjacent inner city suburb of Chippendale, the park sits on the western edge of the CBD.

Hanging gardens and redirected light

Research consistently finds links between urban green spaces and improved physical and psychological wellbeing. It is the green façades on One Central Park’s two residential towers (one 34 storeys tall and the other 12 storeys) that is most likely to benefit the occupants.

Vertical and horizontal planter boxes filled with 350 different plant species hang from the towers, creating a living wall. Each planter has its own irrigation system operated through a building management system that monitors and accounts for environmental conditions.

A cantilevered heliostat suspended from the 28th floor of the taller 34-storey tower reflects light to the gardens and atrium below. On the upper side of the cantilever, a sky garden has been erected, and at night, the cantilever is transformed into an LED light display.

The architects, Ateliers Jean Nouvel, who designed the Central Park development along with Foster and Partners and PTW, say the plant life and redirected sunshine can be used in new ways to improve the quality of high-rise living.

‘With the help of two unusual control technologies – hydroponics and heliostats – vegetation and daylight can become more manageable and can be extended to previously inaccessible places of the building,’ they note.

‘Hydroponic irrigation systems make it possible to grow a soil-less vertical veil of vegetation in planters and on walls all the way up to the tower tops. The resulting green façades trap carbon dioxide, emit oxygen and provide energy-saving shade.’

Great environmental credentials

The One Central Park towers sit atop a six-level shopping centre. They have been built to a 5-star Green Star rating from the Australian Green Building Council and have a raft of environmental features including an on-site low-carbon tri-generation power plant and a private water recycling plant.

Community sustainability and the methods needed to get the residents to live together harmoniously was also seen as an important consideration in encouraging a sense of wellbeing in the development.

‘We not only attacked the development from an environmental engineering perspective but also from the perspective of sustainable living and how humans live together in high densities,’ says Mick Caddey, project director at Frasers Property, the developers.

A winner

One Central Park has won several awards including the prize for the Best Tall Building Worldwide by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) in 2014.

‘Seeing this project for the first time stopped me dead,’ says Antony Wood, one of the jurors. ‘One Central Park strongly points the way forward, not only for an essential naturalisation of our built environment, but for a new aesthetic for our cities – an aesthetic entirely appropriate to the environmental challenges of our age.’

What’s happening in New Zealand?

The importance of reducing the deadening concrete jungle effect of cities by introducing green spaces and plants is recognised globally. Trees act as carbon sinks, taking greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and could help future-proof new urban developments against extreme heat.

In New Zealand, researchers working on the Building Better Homes, Towns and Cities National Science Challenge are investigating the complex factors involved in urban design, including how communities can improve their wellbeing through better access and understanding of open spaces.

Auckland Council’s City Centre Masterplan aims to deliver more parks, small green spaces, and outdoor areas in the coming years.

‘Cities are designed to bring people together, and they work best when they have something for everyone. Plentiful, accessible public spaces are essential for this and not simply nice to have – greenery is good for us,’ says George Weeks, principal urban designer at Auckland Council.

‘Auckland city centre is no longer just a CBD, and that also needs to be reflected in its form. More people, around 40,000, are living in the city centre with an increasing percentage of families – it’s the fastest-growing urban centre in New Zealand and needs to welcome all Aucklanders.

‘The nature of work is also changing, and we need to consider the wellbeing of these increasingly diverse groups and be thoughtful about how we use our spaces most effectively.’

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