Greenery on skyscrapers in Australia has gone from being the “parsley around the pig” to a fundamental design element of the buildings becoming known as treescrapers.
More and more, the old-style concrete jungles in our cities are being replaced by towers that are studded with trees, dripping with foliage and have rooftops that are home to verdant forests of plants, shrubs and saplings.
One Central Park in Sydney has led the way with the tallest vertical garden in the world, rising over 1100 square metres down one side of Frasers Property’s 33-storey tower in Chippendale.
In 2014, it was named the Best Tall Building in the World by the global Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. But there is now a massive green swathe of new treescrapers being designed around the world.
One Central Park. Photo: Murray Fredericks
“There’s no doubt that other areas of the world are more advanced than we are, but at least we’re now doing something,” says Daniel Bennett, national president of The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects. “Ten years ago, having greenery at a building was the exception rather than the rule, but that’s all changed now.
“We’re realising green infrastructure in apartment buildings has value not only in making a building more sustainable, but also in creating more amenity for residents, where they can have nice green spaces to enjoy.
“Ten to 15 years ago, it used to be called ‘parsley around the pig’ but now it’s not just there for decoration, it’s an important part of the building. And the sky’s the limit, literally.”
In both Europe and Asia, the treescraper is beginning to take off. In Italy, the Bosco Verticale, Milan, won the 2015 top building award, with the two towers planted with 900 trees, 11,000 plants and 5000 shrubs from the start of the design.
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