Tensile Design and Construct offers a cost-effective option for customised green facades created using tensile architecture.
Tensile’s custom green facades are recommended for existing buildings, helping them achieve higher environmental performance and reduced energy use without expensive refurbishments.
Tensile Design and Construct Director, Peter Bottero explains that green facades cut heat gain and improve a building's environmental performance and amenity. According to Property Council and the Real Estate Institute data, higher green values translate into higher rents.
He cites One Bligh Street as a good example where Tensile adapted the work done for new projects such as One Central Park to the existing building, helping the owners achieve higher environmental amenity.
Key benefits of green facades include a 57% reduction in solar radiation with 73% leaf coverage; additional cooling effect from evaporative transpiration; and improved aesthetics and outlook for occupants and from the street.
During the development of One Central Park green facades, Tensile Design and Construct undertook extensive studies to understand the impact of wind loading on the plants and its ramification for the underlying facade and structure. This data can now be applied to projects of any scale.
Tensile Design and Construct is currently undertaking a green facade trial at Sydney's Goulburn Street Car Park to prove that the system is applicable in some form to any structure without the need for major structural modifications or interruption to existing activities.
Tensile Design and Construct’s end-to-end solution begins with an analysis of the structure and client needs and wants, followed by the cable design layout, and selection of appropriate species and planters. Regular maintenance is carried out during the first 12 months, during which time the system is generally well-established with growth rates of up to four metres per growing season regularly achieved.
The system can incorporate pots for edibles such as tomatoes, beans and passion fruit within the overall tensile green facade.
