The acclaimed One Central Park, designed by Jean Nouvel, is in need of urgent repairs, with issues of loose exterior planter boxes and flammable cladding plaguing the multi-residential complex.

2022 saw a planter box fall to the footpath below, with local Council calling for repairs to protect the public to take place immediately. Structural engineers have been assessing the safety of other planter boxes that adorn the biophilic building, with some boxes supported by ropes to mitigate risk, while 33 have been removed.

Overhead hoarding on the entire path has been ordered by Council to be put in place by the building’s owner, after complaints were received in regards to barricades around footpaths and car parks.

As for the cladding issue, the building’s owners are under fire from the Cladding Taskforce, who has inspected and reported on a number of Sydney buildings in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017.

Category A and B cladding – the two most flammable – were found on the doors, structures (Cat A) and planter boxes (Cat B) respectively, with the dispute currently before the courts after the Planning Department issued an urgent fire safety order in January in the wake of the cladding inspection. While the majority of the Category A cladding will be removed, the building’s owners are in opposition to removing the Category B materials. The matter has been adjourned until April 2024.

The precinct comprises two multi-residential towers, one 34 storeys, the other 12, with a common retail podium between. The vertical landscape covers half of the building’s facade, with hydroponic walls and low profile horizontal planters and support cables integrated into the tower’s facades supporting a variety of climbing and spreading plants. The plants act as a natural sun control device that changes with the seasons, shielding the apartments from direct sun during summer while admitting a maximum of sunlight in winter.

One Central Park is the former winner of the CTBUH’s Best Tall Building in the World, taking home the prize in 2014.

Architecture & Design Team

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