It was 2013 when the owner of a Jaguar complained that it had been mangled after it was parked in Eastchip, near Fenchurch Street, London. Over time, other drivers protested for the same reason. Maybe their cars weren’t that expensive, but it hurt them even if they were damaged. This was compounded by the owners of a hair salon who were alerted that the doormat of their establishment had suddenly caught fire. The authorities soon realized that everything led to the same place: a building at 20 Fenchurch Street, which served as a giant concave mirror.
Beware of concave buildings. The building, known as a walkie-talkie because of its resemblance to these instruments, had a large concave-shaped reflective surface. Aesthetically it may or may not look good, it’s a matter of taste, but physically it was a danger, because it acted like a huge mirror, concentrating a lot of light and reflecting it to a point located on the road ahead. The reflected sunlight was scorching cars and setting hairdressers’ carpets on fire.
In fact, to test whether the building was really to blame, they experimented with frying an egg with heat reflected from the egg’s surface. This perfection was cooked, since, according to the investigation carried out by journalists from the medium City AMThe brightness was six times higher than in other parts of London.
It was not the first time for its architect. Logically, all the complaints were given to the person who designed the building. It was Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, who had already suffered from overheating problems with one of his creations. It happened in 2010, when a man’s hair burned while sunbathing in a Las Vegas hotel pool he designed. Other guests had already reported the unbearable heat, as well as damage to glasses, armchairs and other utensils that ended up being burnt.
In the English case, the architect indicated that he foresaw what might happen, so he added safety panels to the project. I wanted to avoid something like what happened in Las Vegas. However, according to Vinoli’s own statement, the building’s developers decided to eliminate them at the last minute to cut costs.
The solution. Once the cars were burned, it was clear that cutting costs was not a good idea. Therefore, after the fact, the panels designed by the architect were added. First, the rapids were temporarily installed for construction, to end the problem as soon as possible, and then permanent protection was installed, which remains in the building today.
It could be worse. A few years later, in 2017, scientists simulated what happened in the London building. They found that the heat flux at points where light was reflected from the building was 10 to 15 times greater than when direct sunlight was reflected. Within an hour, the temperature had risen above the melting point of plastic, causing pieces of the material to melt and distort the car.
The most interesting thing about this simulation is that the climate was also taken into account and it was found that if everything happened in a less cloudy city, the consequences could have been more dangerous. As far as possible it was not bad. “Just” had to fix a few cars and buy a new carpet.
Image |Scglossop1
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