ONE CENTRAL PARK’S VERTICAL WALL IS A BLANC CANVAS

Patrick Blanc has been designing living walls for over 30 years and is currently working with Nouvel to install plants and vines for the 166-metre tower facade.

 "The building, together with my vertical garden, will be an architectural work floating in the air, with plants growing on the walls – it will create a very special result that will be very new to Sydney," said Blanc.

The vertical garden consists of 190 native Australian and 160 exotic plant species. Andreasens Green Wholesale Nurseries in Lansvale will be providing 30,000 shrubs which will form part of the garden and a further 70,000 plants are being cultivated at several locations around Australia. The chosen shrubs are designed to spill over planter boxes or climb up cables, creating a calming green screen in the middle of the inner city. Species include varieties of red, pink and purple bougainvillea, dwarf bottle brushes with deep-red flowers, and vine species with flowers in whites, reds, yellows and purples.

The Central Park project consists of two adjoining residential towers that house 624 apartments. The towers are 116 metres and 64.5 metres in height and are part of a larger mixed-use development that includes apartments, shops, cafes, restaurants and office units. The tallest tower features a large cantilever that contains 38 luxury penthouse apartments. On the underneath, there is a heliostat of motorised mirrors that direct sunlight down onto the surrounding gardens. After nightfall the cantilever is used as a canvas for a LED light installation by artist Yann Kersalé.

The Central Park project is due for completion in January 2014.