Pritzker Prize winning French architect Jean Nouvel is the designer of the Sydney Central Park residential development 'One Central Park', which includes a large heliostat.

The first step of installing the 110 tonne steel frame was to lift it 100 metres above Broadway and fix it to the side of the residential tower which took place last week (01/02/13).

The heliostat is made up of mirrors which is used to reflect sunlight in a fixed direction, in this case to allow for sunlight on an area of the building usually in shade.

The world’s strongest tower crane, the FAVCO M2480, nicknamed ‘Tinkerbell’, which can lift a maximum weight of 330 tonne, lifted the reflector frame 100 metres to the 29th level of the tower fronting Broadway.

The lift took several hours to complete, starting just before dawn.

The two towers which form the Central Park development is a joint venture between Frasers Property Australia and Sekisui House Australia and will house 623 apartments.

The building’s façade will be covered in plants and vines which is a collaboration with French botanical artist Patrick Blanc.

Frasers Property Australia CEO Guy Pahor said:

“Frasers Property and our joint venture partner, Sekisui House, together with our builder, Watpac, are delighted to have completed this ambitious and highly challenging engineering and construction task, which has been 30 months in the making.

“The lifting of the 110 tonne heliostat frame is the culmination of what has been a lengthy and rigorous planning process, meticulously and painstakingly orchestrated,” Pahor said.

Watpac Construction NSW state manager Ric Wang said the lift was highly complex as the weight of reflector frame needed to perfectly counterbalance with that of One Central Park’s East tower.

“This is a delicate and scientific exercise in precision engineering,” he said.

Once completed, the cantilever will host a Sky Garden which will have an outdoor dining and a plunge pool for use by residents only.

The heliostat will be affixed to the bottom of the cantilevered Sky Garden, reflecting sunlight to One Central Park’s retail atrium and toward Chippendale Green during the day.

At night, the heliostat transforms into a piece of public art, with almost 3000 coloured LED lights creating a light display designed by French lighting artist, Yann Kersale.

Now that the reflector frame is in place, the next task commences of affixing 320 large mirrored panels to the reflector frame.

Each mirror is fitted with nine LED coloured lights. At night, the heliostat’s 2880 LED lights will illuminate the towers and will be one of the large-scale permanent artworks that comprise Central Park’s $8 million public art collection.

The sophisticated light-reflecting feature will be Australia’s first heliostat to be incorporated into the architectural design of a high-rise residential tower. Heliostats are most commonly used in solar power plants.

Sky at One Central Park will be completed in late 2013.

Renders courtesy of Watpac.

* This article was changed (06/02/13) as it contained an inaccuracy in claiming that the One Central Park development is Australia's first heliostat.

Madeline Prince

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