Melbourne University requested an overhead cable trellis system across some of its buildings to support a series of quick-growth ornamental grape plants. Tensile designed, supplied and installed the trellis system, creating a pergola-like structure to support the planters.
The project was partially funded by the City of Melbourne Urban Forest Strategy – a framework for the development of greenery in the city.
Tensile’s brief
This project was a retrofit, where the cable trellis was installed on existing buildings. The buildings were a mismatch of construction types and ages, with the oldest being a warehouse dating back 150 years.
The installation required consideration of heritage issues and some detailed investigation and engineering work to make sure there would be minimal impact to the buildings. At the same time, we had to ensure maximum protection against loads and forces and low impact to the traversable spaces.
The structure comprises a simple layout of 4mm stainless steel cables to support the vines. While the planters themselves are very small, the finished effect certainly isn’t. It’s quite amazing, and increases the public amenity of the space dramatically!
It protects the buildings from the summer sun, helping to reduce the air temperature and providing a cooling effect to the offices and workshops inside. It also creates a stunning shaded walk and rest area outside for people to enjoy.
This was a fairly simple installation on the surface, but the smart detailing and the choice of plants has created a result much bigger than the sum of its parts!
Cooling our urban environments
These types of urban forest projects are important for their capacity to mitigate the heat island effect and improve the liveability of towns and cities.
Urban built environments without sufficient shading are known for creating heat island effects, often increasing ground temperatures by several degrees. This effect largely occurs due to the way the materials used for roads and buildings absorb and trap heat.
The City of Melbourne Urban Forest Strategy aims to combat this by increasing the city’s canopy cover to almost double its current level by 2040. Other strategies include increasing forest diversity and improving vegetation health and soil moisture.
Increasing urban greenery and expanding the tree canopy also simply makes an area more beautiful and enjoyable, and that’s certainly the case for this installation. We are very proud to have been a part of such a stunning project!
