20 Fenchurch Street, The UK’s Next Iconic Glass Building?

20 Fenchurch Street? ‘Never heard of it’ will be the reaction of most people. How about if we told you that its common nickname is ‘The Walkie Talkie’. Still none the wiser? Ok, it’s the building in London that in the midst of last year’s blazing hot summer was responsible for melting parts of a car parked on a street opposite and several other things.

‘The Walkie Talkie’ has already become an iconic glass setting in the capital just like The Shard and The Gherkin, but in this case for all the wrong reasons and it hasn’t even been completed yet!

Due to consist of a combination of double and triple-glazed panelised aluminium cladding and standing 160 metres tall with 37 floors, 20 Fenchurch Street, which is costing over £200 million to build, isn’t due for official completion until April.

And it isn’t just parts of a car that the building has melted. It’s also caused damage to neighbouring shops and nearby scorched bicycle seats, leading it to be cleverly re-christened as ‘The Walkie Scorchie’.

The concave shape of the skyscraper has been pointed towards as the cause of the problem as it results in a large amount of sunshine being reflected downwards into a small area.

At the time and in a bid to resolve the issue, the developers of the building erected a temporary scaffold screen. To put a permanent end to the problem, it’s believed that they will invest in solar shading and apply it to the building’s exterior.

You can bet that the developers will be praying for a slightly less sweltering summer this year!