Nothing related to TG but I know there are quite a few UK authors and users on this site. Have to laugh at this one. London skyscraper "melting" parked cars.... "The skyscraper's developers said they were seeking to rectify the problem which they blamed on the position of the sun at certain times of day." Hmmmm.... Sure, blame it on the sun. It's clearly out to get them. Perhaps a lawsuit against that pesky star? Perhaps it's something they might have anticipated. I don't think the sun has changed it's route across the sky recently.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/02/us-britain-skyscra...
Comments
OMG
It's a curved mirror!
An unintentional solar concentrator. Maybe they need to consult some solar power experts.
Nah,
Just tell all the 'Essex' girls it is the latest tanning salon.
it might be too much tho
I mean I hope they don't burn. cooked people is not a good, not good at all.
Seriously could you imagine someone leaving a pet in a car there, or even somehow a person passed out.
I was joking you know.
I was joking you know.
I know, just a thought stuck in my head.
But I was already thinking of how dangerous it could be.
But hadn't put that in my first reply.
Ive heard stories of pets left in cars under more normal conditions.
Puns are running through my brain.
It's a horrible idea, but the number of truly atrocious (and sick) puns involving food items and people is mind boggling.
Unintentional?
How could they seriously not know to EXPECT this to happen? LOL.
I looked up a picture of it... Yeah... Some real architectural genius there.......
Abigail Drew.
LoL
Does Turtle Wax make an SPF for cars?
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Nufinish remember the lighter fluid commercials.
LoL I'm not crying over a Jag owner.
Bailey Summers
Just paint it
flat white. No reflection, no heat gain, everybody wins. Of course those inside wouldn't be able to see out, but we must all make sacrifices for the common good.
Liz
I KNOW what sort of person designed that building
It was someone who, as a child, 'cooked' ants with a magnifying glass.
Either that or someone who has absolutely NO ability to think past their own narrow bid to glorify themselves in their architectural masterwork. "I will build an edifice to the glory of me and to hell with what it does to anyone else."
Any reasonably competent grade twelve science student could calculate the focal point of that concave mirror quite easily.
with love,
HER
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
Parking spots are closed while they 'consider' the problem
AND the problem to those parking spots is only for a few weeks when the sun is at a certain angle.
Where is the focal point at other times of the year? Will other buildings be cooked? The street? The sidewalk? What happens when some innocent children or animals are fried? Window glass is highly reflective to UV rays (It is very difficult to get a tan, from the sun, through windows.) so the UV focal point would be VERY dangerous. SPF for not only cars but EVERYTHING.
Of course they could always build a solar collector at the focal point and turn this boondoggle into a model of modern engineering.
with love,
HER
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
Link with picture
It's incredible that someone suggested this, the architect, someone agreed to build it, the construction company, someone agreed to pay for it, the owner, someone agreed to finance it, the banks, someone agreed to approve it, the city. That's a lot of idiot jackasses in one place. It's still under construction so it is possible to fix things by simply tearing the monstrosity down.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/03/london-walkie-talki...
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Hmmmmmm....
"It is not the first time a Vinoly building has been linked to intense rays of sunlight. "
Coincidence? Or Conspiracy?
Abigail Drew.
solar concentrator????
so why has no one came up with the best possible solution??? over the area affected, put up a canopy, including solar collectors!!!! i know not feasible really for a couple of hours a day for only a few weeks a year, but you would think that planners would start USING this capability of buildings to increase electrical production right?
Terri
PS maybe someone has i havent heard about it, not an architect, but take some classes in HS, mechanical and architectural.
Teresa L.
More thought
This quote "reflects intense beams of sunlight for about two hours a day during two to three weeks of the year" is just baloney. It's going to focus sunlight for about half the day for probably at least a third of the year, maybe all year long; it's just where is the focus? Cloudy weather in London is probably the only thing saving some shop from baking every day from 11 till 3.
The news orgs are buying into this malarkey and that is just pitiful. As someone said, a high school student has the education and ability to caclulate this stuff, without being a math whiz.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Luckily...
There's a simple solution.
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Is that the Queen's Brolly?
Is that the Queen's Brolly?
Not that I know of...
It can be ordered on the Web, so I'm surprised the architects didn't think of it already. Of course, the shipping and installation fees are rather monumental...
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
I know bankers and city types
I know bankers and city types are unpopular but I'd didn't think they'd resort to building death rays, still could be an ideal lair for a Bond villain
Clever people
Many architects are NOT engineers, but consider themselves to be just as good. I have watched this building going up, and as the glass started to be fitted I came to the same conclusion any reasonably bright nine-year-old would have arrived at.
Concave curved mirror.
Facing South.
Angled over so that it is wider at the top.
Egos larger than intellects.
Frank Lloyd Wright had the
Frank Lloyd Wright had the same sort of blindness. He had greate visions for buildings, but then pushed the materials (new ones at that point, such as aluminium and plexiglas) beyond their actual limits.
One of my wife's old bosses worked in one of his buildings; every time it rained, the buckets came out.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
When I lived in Wisconsin,
There were a lot of Wright designs around as well as those of his students, and they all leaked. My favorite though was a church meant to look like a viking ship. The "prow" was all glass, and this is where Wright decided to place the organ pipes. This area had the predictable huge temperature swing, and the pipes wouyld stay in tune for at least an hour after tuning.
Mind you I think that man designed beautiful innovative buildings, but he was not of this world. Mind you, I could also tell you stories of conflicts between architects and recording and performance studio designers such as myself, but that's another rant.
Liz
Not for the first time.
Remember the wobbly footbridge over the Thames near Tate Modern? Something else designed by an architect who knew nothing about how structures behave when people walk in step and create a resonance. They had to bring in engineers to fit dampers so the resonance had a much lower 'Q' factor and didn't build up.
Another case of form taking precedence over function.
I can't help thinking the solution is going to be very expensive. Like a none reflective coating on the glass. If the local heat is enough to distort fibre glass panels then what could it do to a human?
Robi
That's generally not the
That's generally not the architect's fault. The architects _generally_ turn their designs over to a structural/physical engineer, who does the materials calculations. If they _don't_, they're idiots. (Which sounds like the bridge - and Wright, who I believe overrode the people who knew the materials.)
My father has done that sort of work for designers before. It's fun when the books come out for material strength, shear values, etc.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Millennium bridge
Yes, Robi, that was my thought. The architect in question famously declaring he 'didn't need' engineers'; he knew what he was doing.
Pillock.
Not exactly
Er, not exactly. It was one of the partners at the engineers, Ove Arup, who decided that the hydraulic dampers weren't needed on the bridge and took them out of the design. He had left the firm before the bridge opened. Ove Arup then had to install the dampers at their own expense (£5M). (The bridge was the joint work of a sculptor, the architects, and the structural engineers.)
John B.
Architect
I know. The comment was made in another context, but it revealed a lot about the man's ego.
Construction workers vs Architechs
I used to work construction as a Carpenter/Framer and most of us tend to look at the blueprints and shake our heads at some stuff. One building in particular up in New Hampshire strikes me. The building plan had multiple roof levels and of course each portion of a roof that overhangs the lower has a soffit. The Architech does not realize that while their plans may look nice and pretty they are often not practical. We had to somehow attach the soffit in locations where there was no way we could use a nailgun or even swing a hammer.
Vinoly
Yes, the Las Vegas hotel, Vdara, the claim is that the "V" is for 'Vegas', but interestingly enough the architect's name also begins with that letter? At least THAT building is only concave in one plane so it only concentrates the sunlight of the windows that are in the same horizontal plane. The London building is concave in two planes, horizontal AND vertical. This guy's stupidity is growing with each building he designs.
with love,
HER
Once in a while I bare my soul, more often my soles bear me.
car melting
Something similar happened in Las Vegas read the article here.
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/vdara-visitor-death-ray-sc...
Sheesh!
They were actually cooking people alive.
Good thing no on passed out drunk there.
Otherwise it could have been worse then a minor scorching.
Yep, same guy built that one
Yep, same guy built that one too. You'd think he would learn after cooking the first dozen or so people with his building, but no, he had to go on to cooking cars.
Edit: here is the name of the 'genius' - Rafael Viñoly
Are you so sure?
He DIDN'T learn exactly what he was hoping to?
Maybe he's an evil mad architect dude Bond villain type who's secret is that he's been working on building giant death rays disguised as buildings all over the world!
Abigail Drew.
The first was an experiment
The first was an experiment in one dimension (concave bottom to top), the new one is two dimensions (the sides as well). The next step is to be able to adjust the focus.
Rotating restaurant, anyone?
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Story idea...
Someone call Charlie Stross...
An alternate description
to the Walkie-scorchie that The Guardian came up with ... the fryscraper.
Nope.
It's the Skyfryer!
Abigail Drew.