Sydney to get world's tallest 'living' façade

"Living" façades are all the rage in architecture today. BD+C has been covering the trend since 2004, when the Edouard François-designed Tower Flower apartment building opened in Paris.

Architect Jean Nouvel now is in on the trend, with the One Central Park Tower development in Sydney, Australia. The project, set to open this fall, consists of two, 380-foot-tall residential towers covered in a series of living walls and vertical gardens that will extend the full height of the buildings. When completed, the project will feature the world's tallest living walls.

The Building Team worked with French artist Patrick Blanc to design and create the living façade. In describing the façade's purpose, project architect Bertram Beissel of Ateliers Jean Nouvel said it will deliver "a flower to each resident, and a bouquet to the city."

The façade will be made up of 190 native Australian and 160 exotic plant species, which will cover about half the total wall area, according to a report by Dezeen.

For more on One Central Park Tower, see reports from the Architect's Newspaper and Dezeen.

Two innovations—program manager Gafcon’s SharePoint360 project management platform and a new BIM “wall creator” add-on developed by ClarkDietrich Building Systems for use with the Revit BIM platform and construction consultant—show how fabricators and owner’s reps are stepping in to fill the gaps between construction and design that can typically be exposed by working with a 3D model.