The Indoor Tropical Garden is located on the top seventh floor of the new Canary Wharf train station, a critical hub for the £ 14.8bn Crossrail infrastructure project that is redefining travel in a growing metropolis. The system, consisting of 132 km of tracks, 42 km of tunnels, 30 existing and 10 new stations, will be launched by 2019, but today you can visit the most impressive part of the creation of the eminent British architect.
Foster + Partners began with the design of an underground three-story part, where the station aprons are located, and completed the project with a giant transparent roof: 310 meters long (more than 3 football fields), 32 meters wide. As with many of his projects, Lord Foster masterfully plays with the contrast of the station's main concrete structures, the surrounding office buildings, and the visually light mesh of the pavement. It is based on 1418 wooden beams from Canadian spruce, which are cut by a sustainable method and assembled by German engineers, intersecting at different angles, and transparent "cushions" made of fluoropolymer film, filled with air, provide thermal insulation, protection from precipitation and contribute to a unique microclimate inside the building. An alliance of architects and engineers chose AGC's Fluon EFTE cushion design. The membrane is a film with a thickness of no more than 250 micrometers - like a regular sheet of paper, however, it is durable, easy to maintain and serves as a dielectric, which is important for the safety of the roof, and also transmits the ultraviolet rays necessary for plants. A quarter of the roof area is left open to fresh air, direct sunlight and rainwater.
The successful application of this technology on the roof became a reality thanks to the involvement of another well-known participant in the design - the engineering firm ARUP. The fluoroplastic pillows were remembered by everyone at the famous Olympic Aquatics Center in Beijing and the Allianz Arena football stadium in Munich, but now they have a new use in London. ARUP's participation in the project has made it possible to bring to life all of Norman Foster's daring ideas, as well as to make the space above the station cost-effective and flexible to use. For example, if retail space after some time becomes unnecessary or requires reconstruction, they can be dismantled or rebuilt without interrupting the operation of the station itself.
The plants selected for the garden by one of London's landscaping studios echo the Canary Wharf maritime heritage. Many of the flora is characteristic of the places visited by British merchant ships in the 19th century. These ships used three docks of the West Indies Dockers' Company, which were located on site until the 1980s. The new facility is located directly north of Greenwich, practically on the prime meridian, which inspired the creators to divide the landing into two geographic zones.
The design of the garden responds to the architectural language of the roofing to create a unique indoor ecosystem, giving visitors a whole new view of the water and the surrounding downtown area. The garden is organized around a main walkway with numerous branches giving the townspeople the feeling of escaping from an urbanized environment. It soars above the water surrounding the station at a height of 24 m, where shops, cafes and restaurants are also located on four above-ground floors, accessible to visitors via two pedestrian bridges.
Bringing the project to life and its further operation requires unique knowledge and the involvement of high-level specialists at all stages of implementation. Even at the design stage, the authors paid special attention to the technologies used for the landscaping device. Unlike a traditional garden, here it is necessary to properly organize drainage and the movement of rainwater, to imperceptibly bring irrigation, to organize a durable relief on the basis of flat reinforced concrete structures, at the same time protecting them from the effects of plants.
In Russia, such advanced roof landscaping systems are handled by the roofing and landscape company "Tsinko RUS", which possesses special landscaping technologies and uses the unique drainage and storage elements ZinCo.
Crossrail Place Retail and Roof Garden is open to visitors from dusk until dawn, but it looks lively at night, flooding the station's surroundings with light. Material provided by the company "Tsinko RUS"
