The Walkie Talkie skyscraper was built in London in 2014. It got its name from its resemblance to an old portable radio. The skyscraper is a 37-story office building with a height of 160 meters, which was designed by the famous Uruguayan architect Rafael Vignoli.
A Walkie Talkie was erected on Fenchurch Street, for which it was necessary to demolish a 25-storey, 91-meter-high building. The old building, built in 1968, was the most famous creation of British architect William H. Rogers. It is noteworthy that now in its place is the most famous creation of Rafael Vignoli, only it is “infamous.”
The Walkie Talkie was originally designed to be 200 meters tall, but had to be scaled down due to concerns about the visual impact of the futuristic tower on the nearby Tower of London and St Paul’s Cathedral.
Construction began in 2008 and was supposed to finish in 2011, but a long recession after the global economic crisis made its own adjustments, stretching out construction by up to 6 years. The cost of the project is estimated at 200 million pounds.
The problems with Walkie Talkie began in early September 2013, when the south side of the building was almost completely glazed. The concave glass began to concentrate and reflect light, which on sunny days caused damage to real and personal property in the immediate vicinity of the tower.
In particular, on September 3, a Jaguar XJ car was damaged: in no more than 2 hours of parking, some body elements and a rear-view mirror melted on it. The developer had to pay damages, estimated at ~$1,470. The previous day it was reported that the plastic elements inside the Vauxhall Vivaro van had melted. Following these incidents, Eastchep Street temporarily prohibited parking at three locations to prevent a repeat of the situation.
Intense heating due to a reflected beam of light caused decorative tiles to fall off near nearby buildings, things in window frames to melt and warp, there is a known case of carpet ignition in the entrance of a hairdressing salon. Then the tower got its second name – Walkie Scorchie (from English scorch, on fire). Almost immediately, a kind of popular diversion appeared: cooking scrambled eggs with reflected light.
However, the fun did not last long. To avoid further losses and litigation, in May 2014, the developer decided to ̶v̶y̶v̶e̶s̶i̶t̶s̶ ̶ch̶e̶r̶n̶y̶y̶ ̶f̶l̶a̶g̶ to cover the south side of the tower with black mesh. Some rooms in the building were already in use at the time, so someone had to put up with this dark veil in front of their windows.
As it turned out, a little later, according to the original project, the building was supposed to be equipped with metal ribs – a kind of protective screens, which, although they would worsen the view of the city from the skyscraper, but at the same time the time prevented the intense reflection of light. These screens were abandoned to save money, assuming that this would not have serious consequences. Eventually the shutters were installed and the south side of the tower now looks like this:
The unusual shape of the building can reflect not only the sun’s rays, but also the wind. Therefore, the Walkie Talkie’s next problem was a powerful downward airflow, which is quite capable of overturning a supermarket food cart or even knocking a person down.
The City of London Corporation has been receiving many related complaints since 2015. The administration was unable to change the situation, but the lesson has been learned: the corporation now requires developers to carry out an independent assessment of the wind reports submitted during the stage planning at your expense.
In January 2015, a “sky garden” was opened to the public on the top three floors of the tower. He was a key player in the approval of the skyscraper project, which fueled public expectations. This garden was planned to include lush flower beds and mature trees, but in the end… The Guardian’s architecture critic described it as “a pair of meager rockeries”. [небольших каменистых цветников] in a space designed with all the sophistication of a departure lounge”.
In September 2015, Walkie Talkie won the Carbuncle Cup anti-competition competition as the worst new British building by a wide margin of competitors.
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Source: IXBT
