One Central Park

One Central Park, located in Sydney's Central Business District, is a 5.8-hectare urban renewal and development project that transformed a former industrial site into a mixed-use development comprising retail, commercial, residential, and community spaces. This project, spearheaded by Frasers Property, involved masterplanning collaborators Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Foster + Partners, and Johnson Pilton Walker, with construction commencing in 2007 and concluding on schedule in 2013. The design of One Central Park integrates significant social and environmental initiatives, creating extensive parkland where none existed previously, amounting to approximately 64,000 square meters of landscaped areas, including a series of dramatic vertical gardens. The landmark East and West One Central Park Towers, designed by architect Jean Nouvel in collaboration with PTW Architects, serve as a southern gateway to Sydney's CBD. These innovative towers incorporate several groundbreaking architectural elements, notably the Sky Garden greenroof and Heliostat system, alongside the world's highest greenwalls (as of 2014), which reach up to 150 meters. The iconic "Sky Garden" is situated 100 meters high on a monumental cantilevered platform that extends 42 meters beyond the East Tower, also housing the Heliostat. This Heliostat system, a pioneering feature in Australian residential development and the largest of its kind in an urban context, consists of 320 reflectors. It is engineered to redirect sunlight from the top of an adjacent building onto the underside of the Sky Garden, thereby illuminating public areas below and replicating the dappled light found in a forest environment. Dr. Patrick Blanc, a renowned botanist, designed the symbiotic and revolutionary living walls based on his hydroponic system, Le Mur Vegetal. These planted walls are distributed across 23 panels of varying sizes on the facades of both towers, covering over 1000 square meters. Complementing these greenwalls, a network of simple wire trellising, extending approximately 7 kilometers, supports climbing and trailing plants from planter boxes located around the building. The selection of plant species was carefully curated to endure challenging conditions, including strong drying winds and intense sunlight at higher elevations, while accommodating shadier conditions closer to street level. The project incorporates 350 distinct plant species for the green walls, totaling 35,000 plants, with an additional 85,000 facade plants. The largest single green wall on the East Tower measures 196 square meters. A total of 5,500 planter boxes are installed across all levels of the East and West Towers and five levels of the retail podium. The structural components supporting this extensive greenery include 15 kilometers of 4mm diameter stainless steel cables and 2,100 stainless steel springs for tensioning vine cables. The towers' facades are composed of 2,486 glass panels on the East Tower (12,678 sqm) and 820 panels on the West Tower (4,428 sqm), totaling 17,106 sqm of glass. Architect Jean Nouvel emphasized the importance of these vertical gardens, stating their towering green presence signifies life on Earth and reinforces the human desire to live amidst parks and gardens. The creative design solutions implemented by the project team have established One Central Park as a significant contribution to sustainable architecture and an inspiring model for future developments, establishing a unique and growing architectural landmark for Sydney. #OneCentralPark #GreenArchitecture #VerticalGardens #JeanNouvel #PatrickBlanc #SustainableDesign #SydneyArchitecture #UrbanRenewal #Heliostat #LivingWalls #OneCentralPark #GreenArchitecture #VerticalGardens #JeanNouvel #PatrickBlanc #SustainableDesign #SydneyArchitecture #UrbanRenewal #Heliostat #LivingWalls