Rising 18 levels next to Southern Cross train station this building is the first of its type in Victoria. Covered with green facades, green roofs and vertical gardens. The Medibank building will set a new benchmark on building green. Fytogreen was contracted to provide research, develop the design and construct the green facades, green roofs and vertical gardens.

The green facades are made up of 520 planter boxes each pre built and pre grown at Fytogreen’s facility in Somerville then transported and craned into position from level 1 up to level 16. Each planter box has the dimensions of 600mm high x 600mm wide x 600mm deep. The bottom 1/3 of the climbing frame was attached to the planter box during pre growing and that then was attached to the rest of the climbing frame when the planter box was positioned on the building.

6 species of climbing vines were selected from our research plots, which include Trachelospernum jasminoides, Pandorea pandorana, Pandorea jasminoides, Muehlenbeckia adpressa, Muelenbeckia complexa and Hibbertia scandens. These were planted and pre grown for 3-6 months prior to installation.

The green facades will adorn 3 aspects of the Medibank Building and will need to survive challenging and wide range of conditions from level 1 up to level 16.