Tuesday, 3 September 2013

They didn't think it through



 This is 24 Fenchurch Street, aka the walkie-talkie building, from the Monument in London. Another in the long list of architectural eyesores inflicted on the british public
     Architects being what they are, the design meeting probably went like this:
     "What do you think of this one, then?"
     "Well, it's pig-ugly, and everyone will hate it".
     "Great! Let's build it at once!"
  But this building isn't just painful to look at. It has the power to inflict actual damage on its surroundings. Yesterday this story came out:
    

'walkie talkie' scyscraper melts jaguar car parts

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/HdV05v9CsmxLejXzh1UkSA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQyMTtweG9mZj01MDtweW9mZj0wO3E9ODU7dz03NDk-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/photo_1378214384854-1-HD.jpg 




Yep, the concave glass wall is reflecting destructively powerful rays down onto the street below. A journalist has even managed to fry an egg in it.
Unbelievable: An egg is fried in intense sunlight reflected from the Walkie-Talkie building, in Eastcheap in the City of London, where sun light reflected from the building melted part of a Jaguar car


 I wonder if this possibility was pooh-poohed at the design meeting, along with all the other qualms about its looming disproportionate bulk overshadowing the Tower of London?

   

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