The irrigation system for the Television Centre in White City was designed by Waterscapes who were appointed by Gillespies, the landscape design architects.
The project required the most suitable irrigation products to meet the demands of the varied landscapes at the centre. Having also been appointed by the landscape contractor Gavin Jones Limited, Waterscapes worked with them to manage the time critical installation phases of the project.
Photo: Gillespies
Gillespies and Gavin Jones had every confidence in Waterscapes' ability to design and apply different forms of irrigation to suit the variety of shrubs, trees and lawns withinthe different landscaped areas.
The public forecourt and terraces lead to the Helios Courtyard with private homes and landscaped gardens. From there, residents can access the Crescent with its fully planted gardens.Waterscapes specified Rain Bird technology, supplied by LWS. “Rain Bird offers the most extensive and compatible range of irrigation products from any single manufacturer,” says Waterscapes' MD, Paul Jeffery.
The irrigation plan featured over 70 different zones, so the ideal control system was the ESP LXD controller which allowed Waterscapes to set individually timed overnight automatic irrigation programs. Sensor decoders and software provide in-built flow management to calculate optimum flow rates. FloManager manages the total system flow rate by dynamically selecting one or more stations that operate simultaneously to use the full capacity of the water source.
Around 6000 metres of surface Dripline irrigate densely planted ground cover and shrubs. Over 300 sprinklers, including rotary nozzles for the lawns, are also featured. The design enabled Waterscapes to reduce pipe sizes and bring down the capital cost for the project. Over 50 Rain Bird XB point-source low flow emitters were specified to irrigate the rootballs of young specimen trees.
Photo: Gillespies
