Complex cultural site upgrade

Complex cultural

site upgrade

By Earth & Water

The Perth Cultural Centre is located in Northbridge at the junction between the Western Australian Museum, Art Gallery of WA and the State Theatre.

Earth & Water have worked in conjunction with the State Theatre Trust since 2009, when Earth & Water installed the irrigation systems at The Urban Orchard, designed by Landscape Architect Josh Byrne.

The most recent changes have been towards the Museum where Deep Green Landscaping has redesigned the landscape and greened up the Museum’s entry using extensive lawns and low maintenance plants.

The existing landscaping spread out across the Cultural Centre (pictured), was completed by Landscape & Maintenance Solutions. Their plant palette of hardy, low maintenance plants sit above our updated irrigation system. This combination of subsurface drip irrigation and durable plants results in lower water consumption and softening greenery throughout the year

The Perth Culture Centre is large and spread out, creating some interesting challenges. The public nature of the site presented challenges including the threat of vandalism and theft of sprinkler heads. To mitigate damage, the sprinklers were changed to Hunter Industries MP1000, MP2000

& MP3000 Rotator nozzles. These nozzles sit lower in the ground and pop up higher in extra tall pop up bodies. By sitting lower, sprinkler heads are exposed to soil and debris that could clog the nozzle but these nozzles have an in-built double pop mechanism that protects the inlet when not in use.

Over the last 24 months Earth & Water have updated the underlying irrigation system that waters all garden beds and lawns and introduced a smart water controller for improved water management.

Site Parameters

The public space in the Cultural Centre is complex because it is owned by three entities including the Art Gallery, Museum and State Theatre. This introduced design and installation complexities that are rare on most commercial projects. For example, a common mainline runs through three different parts of the precinct and must be considered before making any changes to the design or layout, as it might impact on future developments that only one of the three parties are either privy to or responsible for.

Planning, Documentation & Safety

is a foremost priority on commercial projects where there are many trades on site and effective communication is essential. A series of procedural documents are used, including:

As Constructed Irrigation Schematics Health & Safety Plan Irrigation Station Mapping

Events & Usage

The Cultural Centre is used for public events like Fringe Festival, Comedy festivals and Christmas Pageants. Lawns cannot be damp, and sprinklers cannot be run when these events are on.

Therefore the design solutions include:

Flexible watering times Low profile irrigation (out of sight and out of mind)

Smart Water Management

The Cultural Centre uses a Hunter Industries Hydrawise smart controller

to quickly and easily manage water delivery across its numerous garden beds and lawns.

The Smart Controller has its own Wifi dongle allowing users to control it via the Hydrawise app. The app, available on desktops and phones provides a platform to monitor the condition of the overall system. Information such as run times, flow rate, total water consumption and water pressure is all captured in real-time.

There are 19 zones spread out across the Cultural Centre. Each zone groups together garden beds and lawns with similar water requirements. This zoning method has two main functions. The first is customising the water delivery to the specific needs of the plants and lawns in each zone resulting in healthier plants and gardens. The second is to help isolate leaks and

Over the last 24 months Earth & Water have updated the underlying irrigation system that waters all garden beds and lawns and introduced a smart water controller for improved water management.

blockages to smaller areas, reducing problem solving and repair time.

Seasonality is programmed into the smart controller by linking to nearby weather stations. The 19 zones use predictive adjustments based on localised weather conditions to ensure gardens are not over-watered in winter and underwatered in summer.

Flexibilty is important and watering times can be changed remotely so water technicians are not required to visit the site when changes need to be made to irrigation scheduling. For example, when Fringe Festival is on, the usual night watering times are not suitable. Lawns become sodden and prone to damage and sprinklers may wet the people. For the period Fringe Festival is on, watering frequency is increased but duration reduced. The result is effective irrigation that allows foot traffic to increase whilst maintaining water requirements to lawns and gardens beds. All this is programmed into each zone that corresponds with the area being used by Fringe Festival. This is more cost effective for the Museum and makes water management easier.

Sprinklers

Sprinklers were used as little as possible across the Cultural Centre because they are impractical for the area.

Where they have been installed, Hunter Industries MP Rotators in extra tall pop-up bodies were installed well below the mulch, hidden from the public and the tall pop shaft can rise above the mulch or lawn.

Subsurface Dripline

The 15 garden beds are irrigated using Netafim’s Uniram ASXR subsurface drip line. The dripline sits out of site, 100 millimetres below the soil surface avoiding evaporation with the warmth of the day. Driplines were spaced between 300mm and 450mm depending on the type of plants. All driplines are staked down every three meters and covered with mulch.

Netafim’s ASXR dripline has three important technologies that increase the system’s longevity and reliability.

1. Copper oxide lines the inside of the drip and is a root deterrent that stops [plants from growing through holes and into dripline.

2. The “anti-suck-back” feature prevents sand and soil from been sucked back into the dripper and dripline once that zone has stopped irrigating. This stops clogging

3. Anti-siphon mechanism holds consistent water pressure throughout the system and prevents water from leaking when not irrigating. The anti-siphon feature was initially developed for the greenhouse industry where they irrigate for only one minute for up to 30 times per day.

Before the anti-siphon diaphragm was invented the lower section of the greenhouse ended up with all the excess water and drained into the plants soil (media) causing very damp soils and fungal issues. Now with antisiphon each dripper opens and shuts under pressure at the same instant throughout the length of the dripline providing 100% emission uniformity.