There are so many stages involved in the creation of the building, from initial design to the actual construction and there are entire teams of people involved. So how can mistakes slip through the cracks? Well if they didn't this page would not exist, so take a look at some of the things that can happen when certain details slip through the cracks.
The building we are going to begin with is the Standard Oil Building which is also known as the Aon Centre or even the Amoco. This building was originally constructed using marble cladding specifically Italian Carrara marble, a type of marble famously used in many Renaissance sculptures with a distinguished reputation. This type of marble can also be used to construct stairs and the inner lining for walls. At some point it was decided that marble cladding would be used.. However, the problem is that marble when used in such a manner results in what is known as ‘bowing’ which just means over time the marble will not hold up well and will physically bend. This deformation occurs in response to environmental factors such as temperature changes which cause the marble to expand and contract due to thermal changes however, only when these changes become permanent do marble panels end up bowing. Another more serious long term deterioration of the marble includes a loss of strength which for a building… isn’t desirable to say the least. This phenomenon can also be seen in the National Bank of Denmark designed by Arne Jacobsen (only this exterior cladding was Norwegian marble not Carrara) and it was also seen that after 35 years 40% of flexural strength was lost.
So the Amoco building was constructed with the marble cladding on the exterior which sounds initially like a great idea due to its elegance and it made the building the tallest marble building in the world so it adds a cute little USP right?
Except the day came during construction on December 1973 when a slab of marble weighing 160 kg dropped from off of the building and sliced into the roof of a neighbouring building. Eventually, in the early 1990s, over the course of two years the cladding was redone with white granite which cost millions.
For more information and photos check out these sources: 1, 2.
Learn more about Carrara marble and when its used as cladding.
Next we have the Walkie Talkie building officially known as 20 Fenchurch Street (catchy right?) which was completed pretty recently in 2014. It is building filled with offices with steel columns and a reinforced concrete core designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects.
So what’s wrong with it? Well for one it won the Carbuncle Cup 2015 which basically announced it to be the ugliest/worst building in the UK and secondly, it had a a bit of a death ray problem. I mean when you look at the building you’ll know why it won the Carbuncle Cup, the weird building out at the top style was partly a stylistic choice and partly to maximise space in the upper floors to accommodate more rooms which would lead to more revenue. However, it left the building looking like a Walkie talkie (hence the nickname). In addition to this, as the building was covered in glass and as it underwent prolonged periods of exposure to sunlight leading the building’s exterior to act as a concave mirror. This basically means that it would focus light onto the streets to the south of building making the temperature reach as high as 91, the walkie scorchie claimed a couple victims and I’m not talking human beings, I mean the solar glare from the building melted cars, started fires and was even used by a reporter to fry an egg on the ground in a pan, you really can't make this stuff up!
This issue was resolved temporarily by putting up a temporary screen but for the more permanent fix was covering the building in a non reflective film to prevent the solar glare.
For more information and photos check out these sources:
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Learn more about non reflective films
This hotel opened in Las Vegas in 2009 with a curved exterior glass structure and due to exposure to the sunlight which hits the building during the day, the glass reflects this light (sound familiar yet), to where? The swimming pool. This basically means that the light was intensified and reflected into the pool heating up the water and the surrounding area. It had been reported that these death rays melted plastic bags. The pièce de résistance, it was design by the same company that designed the previous entry Walkie Talkie building…
Another similar issue occurred with the Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles, USA) designed by Frank Gehry and built in 1999- 2003 period which also reflected light onto the nearby roads blinding drivers and leading to an intensified heat in the area. Ultimately the metal reflective exterior was sanded down to reduce the glare and fix the error while the Hotel exterior was covered in a non reflective film.
For more information and photos check out these sources:
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This apartment complex fell over like a domino during construction in 2009 almost completely intact, builders found that the building had completely collapsed. This incident also unfortunately ended up claiming the life of one of the workers. The circumstances that led to this include reports of improper construction methods and due to the geological condition of the soil being built on. Specifically, in order to begin construction on an underground parking area, tonnes of earth were dug up and left in a pile on the other side of the complex, this meant that a pressure differential (which basically means the pressure difference between two points) was created leading to a weakening to an already non-ideal foundation causing the building to quite literally topple over.
For more information and photos check out these sources:
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In 2007 a skyscraper was built in Leeds, another recipient of the Carbuncle Cup (2008) designed by Aedas. This particular building was designed to have such a shape that wind speeds in it’s vicinity would increase to the point that such gusty winds (getting as high as 80mph at street level) that vehicles would be toppled over and people would be pushed into the road by the wind. Temporary measures to mitigate these effects included a warning side outside the building, the roads nearby were closed off and baffles were built and put up in the buildings immediate vicinity which ended costing £900,000 in total, the project was only recently completed earlier this year. The dramatic increase of wind speeds at street level are induced because the area is surrounded by other buildings leading to the air bring channeled through a narrow passage this is a form of the Venturi effect, this is one of the factors that affected the wind speed at ground level, there are other factors that add to this such as the downdraught effect.
For more information and photos check out these sources:
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