Image Credit : Isaac Leung
Project Overview
Within a backdrop of Sydney’s architectural skyline, Palette of Urban Green was commissioned for Vivid Sydney to showcase how circular economy thinking can apply to the built environment. The project was ambitious in demonstrating how the architecture and construction industries can work towards zero waste in rejecting the typical linear model of ‘take, make, use, dispose’. Unlike most structures, Palette of Urban Green challenged us to intelligently design and construct all elements to be efficiently disassembled with minimal damage, helping each component to retain its value. This resulted in the lifecycle of all materials being continued to this day.
Project Commissioner
Destination NSW (New South Wales Government)
Project Creator
Team
Designer: HY William Chan, University of Sydney
Mentor: Matthew Pullinger, AIA (NSW Chapter)
Structural Engineering: Richard Green, TTW
Manufacturing: Michael Mourad, Pace Pallet
Construction: Doug McDonald, MacBuilt Homes
Electrical: Jerry Argyriou, PowerSense
Project Brief
The construction industry is Australia’s predominant consumer of natural resources and the largest contributor to waste, with 8.5 million tonnes disposed to landfill every year. To reduce this waste, the circular economy model can help ensure materials are kept at its highest value for longer. It relies on system-wide innovation to design waste out and ultimately decouple economic growth from resource consumption.
Palette of Urban Green is an investigation on how the circular economy can benefit the industry and the built environment, reflecting on the commercial, environmental and social opportunities of employing circular principles. Can we design a structure where, at the end of its life, all its components and materials can be re-used, re-manufactured or re-cycled? Asking this question profoundly changes the design process and construction priorities in the supply chain. A collaborative approach to procurement is critical, with both designer and suppliers challenged to think differently about the project lifecycle and material processes.
Described as a highlight of the Vivid Sydney festival by its director, the exhibit transformed familiar wooden pallets – a construction product often discarded after use – into a simple yet elegantly unexpected interactive light installation. Circular principles were rationalised for each design component and the construction process, which gave all materials a continued lease of life following the event.
Palette of Urban Green demonstrates that by shifting the way we approach design and technology, we can create an environmentally and socially sustainable built environment.
Project Innovation/Need
Palette of Urban Green was informed by Stewart Brand’s principles of building in layers, serving as a representative model for architecture where each element was easily separated and removed.
The installation was site-specific, with natural capital regenerated through the cultivation of the existing footprint vegetation during the event period and returned post-event. The structure was designed for flexible de/construction, whereby cranes and forklifts had specific access from the top and bottom respectively. The concrete footings were recycled into landscaping aggregate used by Fairfield City Council, while the steel columns were repurposed commercially.
The skin consisted of plantation pine locally sourced from Oberon, with sustainability certifications from the UN International Plant Protection Convention, PEFC and Australian Forestry Scheme’s Standard Management and Chain of Custody. As the key design characteristic, the traditional Australian square pallet was redesigned in order to satisfy both structural requirements for the collective installation system and individual industry use. The modular pallets allowed for low-tech element disassembly (by simply unpinning the screw arrangement from each other around the central column) and complete, immediate reuse (by maintaining each pallet’s expected structural and functional integrity). Post-event, the pallets have already had a five-year industrial life.
For services, high-frequency sensors reduced energy consumption by activating lighting with movement, while plug-and-play functionality facilitated reuse. The eco-certified LED lights specified were more energy-efficient than the existing park and path lighting. Both sensors and lights operated on a ‘take-back’ scheme and were returned to suppliers for continued future use.
Design Challenge
Palette of Urban Green encouraged people to develop an emotional response to the natural/built environment through curiosity and interactivity.
Located adjacent to the new Museum of Contemporary Art and opposite the Sydney Opera House, the project attracted visitors to the tree-filled sunken park. From afar, the audience is captivated by what appears like glowing lanterns, before realising that the twisting towers are actually shipping pallets. A familiar material is transformed into the unexpected; the mundane into something unusual.
The site-specific structures ranged from 1.8 to 3.2m in height. They were designed to be human-scaled so that visitors immersed themselves into the landscape, while intimately feeling and smelling the rawness of the natural material. The incrementally rotated pallets becomes a symbolic representation of the ‘circular’ economy model, spiraling into city high-rises within the existing urban fabric.
Additionally, the warmth and texture of the timber was accentuated with the lighting design, creating a mesmerising array of light and shadow. The undulating helix inspired children – and adults alike – to peek into and through the pallets to see each other and take photos framed by the material. Concealed high-frequency sensors, which detect through wood, activated the lights based on surrounding movement, encouraging users to physically interact with the installation.
Every night, 33,500 local and international visitors on average experienced Palette of Urban Green during Vivid Sydney. The exhibit evoked delight in the audience by creating a memorable experience that aimed to be both playful and meaningful.
Sustainability
To engage visitors with Palette of Urban Green and advocate for the circular economy in the built environment, education was the main driver of the marketing strategy.
In addition to global marketing developed by Destination NSW, updates were provided from the dedicated project website, Twitter and Facebook channels. Palette of Urban Green was featured in community and architecture news websites from Europe, South America and the Asia-Pacific, including One Young World, Asia Tatler, Indesign and Architecture & Design. During the design-construction process, print media coverage was gained in Brisbane, Central Coast, Western Sydney and Melbourne, with front page newspaper features in Sydney and St George/Illawarra. The project was internationally published by Mondo Arc and Architecture Australia magazines post-event, and selected for the cover of the 2016 Forest and Wood Products Australia annual report.
Palette of Urban Green was also endorsed by leading industry bodies, the Australian Institute of Architects and the Green Building Council of Australia, promoting the exhibit through digital channels and their membership. To engage the community at a grassroots level, discussion-based keynotes were publicly presented at the Arup Global Design Events Series, HASSELL, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and Verge Arts Festival.
Content generated included sketches, architectural drawings, photomontages, scaled models, photography, presentations and speeches.
Tags
Pop-Ups, Display, Exhibit & Set Design
This award celebrates innovative and creative design for a temporary building or interior, pop up site, installation, exhibition, fixture or interactive element. Consideration given to materials, finishes, signage and experience.
More Details