Dhruv Bansal - 10110014Madhav Singh - 10110031

The Gherkin—30 St. Mary AxeLocation: London, EnglandLatitude/Longitude: N51.54°/W0.3°Annual Precipitation: ~52" per yearBuilding Type: Commercial High-RiseStatistics: Rentable space 252,025 sq. ft. Estimated actual area ~500,000 sq. ft.Floors: 40 floorsHeight: 179.8 meters Completion Date: September 2003Client: Swiss Re Reinsurance CompanyDesign Team: Foster and Partners

About the Architect

Name The Lord Foster of Thames BankNationality EnglishBirth date 1 June 1935 (age 78)Birth place Stockport, Greater Manchester, EnglandPractice Foster + PartnersBuildings 30 St Mary Axe, London

Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters, IpswichWembley Stadium

Projects American Air Museum at the Imperial War Museum DuxfordAwards Stirling Prize, Pritzker Architecture Prize, Minerva Medal,

Prince of Asturias Award

Architect’s Philosophy

• Foster doesn’t play the architect’s favorite ideological game of simplifying the design process down to a golden rule. To him, a great building is based on plural consideration—structure, aesthetics, materials, daylighting, ecology, function and many more—and never the imposition of one at the detriment of another.

Influence of Buckminster fuller on Foster’s Work

It was Foster’s association with Fuller which

Introduced him to the possibility of having polyhedral shape building and gave him a break

From cuboidal buildings.

Montreal Biodome and Buckminster Fuller

History

The Swiss Re Reinsurance Company contracted Foster and Partners to create a design for the site that was not only spectacular and engaging, but for the building to be sustainable, amplifying the attributes of the site instead of merely conforming to them.

Design Concept

The philosophy of the design team was that innovation in building and form come fromdevelopment of new technologies and techniques for building. The seeminglyexpressionist facade was actually developed through air flow testing (ARUP engineering).This design proved the best, maximizing air flow around the building. It also decreased thesize of the footprint of the building, allowing for a very accessible public plaza at ground level.

Structure

•The structure is made up of a “Diagrid,”comprised of steel pieces coming together attriangular nodes to support the outer

weight of the structure. •This design allows for uninterrupted office interiors with revolving triangular atriumsthat connect the spaces floor-to-floor

and allow for ventilation.• Because of the façade and double-wall structure of the building, an all-glass façade was chosen to maximize sun exposure.

The steel nodes used in the construction of the frame of the building also had to be tested and simulated in order to make absolutely sure that the building would fit together and perform properly. This methodology is referred to as “Precambering.”The design team constructed mock-ups of the structural connections, and then using sophisticated computers, calculated the amount of deflection and compaction that would take place over 40 stories of construction.

The building is composed of a double-wall system. The outer wall is a double-glazed glass wall composed of mullions and triangular-shaped window pieces. The inner wall is made of sliding glass doors (accessible only by maintenance). In between the two walls is a space and a row of horizontal shading devices.

Passive strategies

Each floor is rotated 5 degrees from the floor above or below it, allowing up to 6 floors to be attached by the vertical light wells. The double wall contains venting flaps, built into the triangular façade, to allow hot air to travel up and out the building. There is a built-in heat exchange system built into the ceiling of each floor unit, with exchangers for cooling of spaces, running off a cold-water well for summer months.

Typical Floor plan

Air Control Unit

The “egg”shape of the building not only reduce the amount of volatile winds at pedestrian level, but with smoother air flows through the area, there is less heat loss over the surface of the building. This low-pressure system also allows the designers to have large light wells at heights that would be otherwise unfeasible

Plaza with Arcadian garden

Panoramic dome at the topOn the building's top level (the 40th floor), there is a bar for tenants and their guests featuring a 360° view of London. A restaurant operates on the 39th floor, and private dining rooms on the 38th.Whereas most buildings have extensive lift equipment on the roof of the building, this was not possible for the Gherkin, since a bar had been planned for the 40th floor. The architects dealt with this by having the main lift only reach the 34th floor, and then having a push-from-below lift to the 39th floor. There is a marble stairwell and a disabled persons' lift which leads the visitor up to the bar in the dome.

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