One Central Park is the main landmark tower of the Carlton & United Brewery redevelopment near Central Station in Sydney, Australia. The master plan strategy for this site is a sustainable, transit-oriented high-rise neighborhood centered around a new park that did not exist before.

This new park continues Sydney’s wise tradition of scattering green spaces within walking distance in every part of the city, and it also exemplifies a new high density urbanism that prioritizes open public spaces, life quality, and sustainable planning. In order to make this visible in the city at a distance, One Central Park elevates the park along its towering façades and irrigates it with its own recycled water. On the cooler South side, the park rises in a sequence of planted plateaus that are scattered like puzzle pieces in randomized patterns across the facades, so that each apartment has not only a balcony, but also its own piece of the park. On the hotter North, East and West sides, the green takes a more continuous veil-like appearance with green walls, continuous planter bands and climbing vegetation. Here, the plants play a shading role, reducing glare and heat gains in addition to trapping Carbon Dioxide. Overall, the project hosts over 200 plant species that were selected by the French botanist Patrick Blanc for their contribution to the site’s overall biodiversity, as well as for their compatibility with each exposure-based micro-climate on the facades. The striking green appearance of the towers with its flowering seasonal fireworks thus fulfills the double role of delivering simultaneously on the message and the performance of the project’s sustainable agenda.

 

In addition to their veil of vegetation, One Central Park features a second sustainable device that redirects sunlight to overshadowed areas of the park and terraces to the towers’ South. For this to work, the towers’ massing is broken up into a lower and a taller volume. On the roof of the lower tower, 42 sunlight tracking mirrors or heliostats redirect sunlight up to a giant reflector with 324 facets on a cantilever off the taller tower, which then beam the light down into areas that would otherwise be in permanent shade. The system adapts hourly and seasonally to the need for brightness and warmth. For instance, a large atrium in the towers’ podium is  lit through a ponded skylight that functions like a heat sink in the summer and can be drained in the winter to benefit from the sun's warmth when that’s desirable. At night, the faceted reflector becomes a monumental urban chandelier and appears in the dark sky like a floating pool of tiny LED lights that merge into a single giant image of glittering harbor water.

​

Bertram Beissel was the design director and partner in charge of One Central Park for Ateliers Jean Nouvel. Under Bertram’s direction, One Central Park in Sydney, Australia, won the CTBUH Award for the Best Tall Building Worldwide in 2014.

​

STATUS Completed
LOCATION Sydney, Australia