Taking care of distinct urban conditions
Passing
through a park and sandwiched by residential towers, this section of the
barrier has 3 main distinct conditions relating to its surrounding.
1.
View
down from the buildings: People from the residential tower are disturbed by
not only noise but also lights from the highway. The climber plants on the
barrier hide the barrier and highway. It also block off substantial portion
of the vehicles lights and highway lights.

2.
View
up from the park: People from the park would see the concrete underside of
the highway. The proposal extends the greening from the barrier to the park.
Climbing plants from the pots not only grow up to the barrier but also hang
down to the park.
3.
View
of the drivers: The use of climbers creates a more transparent greening
effect on the barrier. The drivers could still have view thought the barrier
to the surroundings. Compared to solid greening panel or merely transparent
panels, this approach reduces the feeling of being inside a confined tunnel.
Efficient and better greening
Vertical
vegetation panels have been proved to be not desirable for greening highway
condition. The shallow soil depth makes the plants dry up easily. The
complicated irrigation system which it requires also makes the maintenance
demanding. The proposal has planting pots underneath the highway. These pots
provide proper soil depth for heavy and low maintenance plantings.

Renewable energy supply
The
pendulum system generates electricity from surrounding wind and turbulence
from the passing traffic. Compared to the use of PV panels which requires
particular installation angles and imposes visual disturbance, this system
works holistically with the entire design and more independent to weather
conditions. The surplus electricity could supply lightings for the park
facilities and podium of adjacent residential block.

Ecofriendly materials and operations
Main
posts are made by laminated recycled plastic lumber. This material is made of
recycled milk jugs and shampoo bottles which contain the required high-
density polyethylene. It is made by recycled high weight and durable. This ecofriendly material has been tested
in building 50 feet spanning bridge with loading capability of 15 tons and life
expectancy of 50 years.
Rainwater
is collected from the barrier and road surface are channeled down to planting
pots with petrol filter. The use of deep planting pots allows large reserves
of water in soil. This eliminates the requirement of irrigation system.

Simple construction and cost effective
Although
the proposal gives an organic appearance imitating a botanical greenhouse,
the components are highly modular. The main posts have only 3 variations.
This makes it cost effective to construct and replace.
Separating
the heavy soil from the main barrier structure allows the supporting frame to
be more slender. This not only reduces the loads concentrating on the highway
curb edge but also makes the barrier visually less bulky.

Safer and easier maintenance
Maintenance of the
plantings is easy and safer. Operators access the planting soil via a walkway
underneath the highway. This arrangement allows generous walkway width for
transporting soil and replacement plants. Doing maintenance away from the
road level is safer.