The building that defines 21st century living and pushing the integration of landscape and tower architecture is the One Central Park Building in Sydney. Completed in 2014 the two residential towers (east and west) required an exterior access solution as unique as the building itself.
With over 50% of the tower’s exteriors covered in approximately 38,000 indigenous plants, accessing the exteriors for maintenance, inspection, and cleaning works required Farra’s bespoke Building Maintenance Unit (BMU) designs.
For the small west tower, Farra created a three-stage telescopic BMU. With an outreach of 24.5 metres and having the BMU mounted to traversing rails on the building's roof the unit was able to access all areas of the facade, including being able to be lowered out of sight into a parking location when not in use.
The taller east tower was slightly more complex. Standing at 117 metres tall the building required two Building Maintenance Units to enable complete access to the tower’s exterior façade. One double slewing and one single slewing unit were designed, manufactured, and installed allowing 360-degree access to all the crevasses.
To enhance worker efficiency each of the three BMUs were manufactured with interchangeable cages. An extending cage, fixed cage, and two personal cages were created ensuring that the best access options possible were available for each particular façade type.
Further additions of custom-built vegetation bins attached to the side of the cages gave BMU operators convenient access to equipment while completing their works.
