This was apparently due to the intense sunlight reflected from its fully glazed southern façade. Sky News broadcast a reporter frying an egg for his lunch, using the reflected sunlight at street level to heat a frying pan.

The 37 storeys of offices at 20 Fenchurch Street, dubbed the Walkie-Talkie, designed by the New York based Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly, is a joint development by Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group. The tapering rectangular design by Viñoly, with larger office floors at the top of the building, creates a curved silhouette that bulges upwards and outwards. The rectangular office floors also have façades that are curved in plan, creating a concave double curvature to the building’s southern elevation.

The glazed southern façade appears to act like a large parabolic mirror, focusing, concentrating and reflecting the sunlight down onto the surrounding buildings and streets. A temperature of 91.3°C has been measured at street level on Eastcheap.

The developers say they are working to rectify the problem, created by the sun’s angle in the sky for several weeks during the year, stating that the phenomenon only happens at certain times of the day. As a temporary measure, screens of black meshing on temporary scaffolding have been erected over the pavement to Eastcheap to protect people and buildings from the extreme glare and heat from the reflected sunlight.

However, Viñoly has already reportedly encountered difficulties of melted poolside furniture and burnt guests at the 57 storey Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada; three towers with glazed south-facing concave crescent façades. In 2003, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, designed by Frank Gehry, encountered similar problems due the stainless steel cladding covering the building.

[translation Aline Scudeller and Caio Guerra]

about the author

Helena Guerra is a filmmaker has graduated in FAAP and correspondent portal Vitruvius.