ESD features in apartment building

Greenery design community

The latest addition to Melbourne’s thriving arts precinct in Southbank, Triptych, is setting a benchmark for apartment living by delivering innovation in green space and dedication to high-end environmentally sustainable design.

From street level, the apartment features a vertical green living wall, spanning 187 m², as an external entrance feature. Rising above the building’s Kavanagh Street entrance, from level two to level six, a green wall is to be installed by Fytogreen and will include a tapestry of grasses and plants specifically selected to thrive within this vertical garden setting. A rooftop garden is also being included which is designed by Jamie Durie and his team at Patio.

Developed by RI Investment Development Trust, the building has been designed in conjunction with ESD firm Cundall ,with the 29-storey building’s engineering plan scrutinised to ensure ‘green’ is the ultimate theme. The design of the apartment complex includes natural cross-flow ventilation, co-generation, water harvesting, ‘low e’ double glazed windows and sustainable flooring material.

Floor to ceiling windows that open are featured to allow the flow of fresh air into both the central communal areas as well as each individual apartment. Unlike traditional apartment buildings where hallways and communal spaces are often dark and air conditioned with little or no natural airflow, the building’s common areas or ‘vertical villages’ are light, glass-encased spaces which include 9 m ceilings, motorised louvered windows allowing for airflow and a growing creeper wall. The windows will open and close automatically in relation to outside weather conditions.

Inspired from an old European design, each apartment has a dedicated private foyer with a lockable gate which allows airflow throughout the apartment while maintaining a secure entrance.

Triptych will also reduce its impact on the electricity grid by generating its own electricity through co-generation, and the heat by-product of this process will be used to warm the building’s vertical villages via a hydronic heating system, as well as supplement the heat for the domestic hot water system and swimming pool.

Rainwater will be collected from the rooftop and level six podium, for storage on site and swimming pool replenishment as well as for indoor and outdoor garden irrigation. Each apartment will also feature high water efficiency taps, showerheads and dishwashers.

Strand-woven bamboo flooring is featured in the interior. The flooring is durable, resilient to changes in temperature, has an elevated UV resistance and is claimed to be more renewable than traditional hardwoods.