1.
Abu Dhabi
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Abu Dhabi is the capital and the second most populous city of the United Arab Emirates, and also capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, the largest of the UAEs seven emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the western coast. The city proper had a population of 1.5 million in 2014, Abu Dhabi houses federal government offices, is the seat of the United Arab Emirates Government, home to the Abu Dhabi Emiri Family and the President of the UAE, who is from this family. Abu Dhabis rapid development and urbanisation, coupled with the high average income of its population, has transformed the city into a large. Today the city is the center of political and industrial activities. Abu Dhabi accounts for about two-thirds of the roughly $400-billion United Arab Emirates economy, Abu Dhabi is the fourth most expensive city for expatriate employees in the region, and in 2014 was the 68th most expensive big city in the world. Abu Dhabi is full of evidence that points to civilizations, such as the Umm an-Nar Culture. Settlements were also found farther outside the city of Abu Dhabi. There is evidence of civilizations around the mountain of Hafeet and this location is very strategic because it is the UAE’s second tallest mountain, so it would have great visibility. It also contains a lot of moisture in its springs and lakes, origin of the name Abu Dhabi The origin of the name Abu Dhabi is uncertain. Meaning Father of the Gazelle, when translated from Arabic. According to Bilal al-Budoor, assistant under-secretary for Cultural Affairs at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development, The area had a lot of dhibaa, an old story tells about a man who used to chase deer and was named the father of the animal. Abu Dhabis original name was Milh salt, possibly referring to the salty water of the Persian Gulf, some Bedouins called the city Umm Dhabi, while British records refer to the place as Abu Dhabi. According to some accounts, the name Abu Dhabi was first used more than 300 years ago. The first word of Abu Dhabi is pronounced Bu by inhabitants on the western coast. In the eastern part of the city, the pronunciation is Abu, origins of the Al Nahyan family The Bani Yas bedouin were originally centered on the Liwa Oasis. This tribe was the most significant in the area, having over 20 subsections, in 1793, the Al Bu Falah subsection migrated to the island of Abu Dhabi on the coast of the Persian Gulf due to the discovery of fresh water there. One family within this section was the Al Nahyan family and this family makes up the rulers of Abu Dhabi today
2.
United Arab Emirates
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In 2013, the UAEs population was 9.2 million, of which 1.4 million are Emirati citizens and 7.8 million are expatriates. The country is a federation of seven emirates, and was established on 2 December 1971, the constituent emirates are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain. Each emirate is governed by a monarch, together, they jointly form the Federal Supreme Council. One of the monarchs is selected as the President of the United Arab Emirates, Islam is the official religion of the UAE and Arabic is the official language. The UAEs oil reserves are the seventh-largest in the world while its natural gas reserves are the worlds seventeenth-largest, Sheikh Zayed, ruler of Abu Dhabi and the first President of the UAE, oversaw the development of the Emirates and steered oil revenues into healthcare, education and infrastructure. The UAEs economy is the most diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, while its most populous city of Dubai is an important global city, nevertheless, the country remains principally reliant on its export of petroleum and natural gas. The UAE is criticised for its rights record, including the specific interpretations of Sharia used in its legal system. The UAEs rising international profile has led analysts to identify it as a regional. It appears the land of the Emirates has been occupied for thousands of years, there is no proof of contact with the outside world at that stage, although in time it developed with civilisations in Mesopotamia and Iran. This contact persisted and became wide-ranging, probably motivated by trade in copper from the Hajar Mountains, in ancient times, Al Hasa was part of Al Bahreyn and adjoined Greater Oman. Sassanid groups were present on the Batinah coast, in 637, Julfar was an important port that was used as a staging post for the Islamic invasion of the Sassanian Empire. The area of the Al Ain/Buraimi Oasis was known as Tuam and was an important trading post for camel routes between the coast and the Arabian interior. The earliest Christian site in the UAE was first discovered in the 1990s, a monastic complex on what is now known as Sir Bani Yas Island. Thought to be Nestorian and built in 600 AD, the church appears to have been abandoned peacefully in 750 AD and it forms a rare physical link to a legacy of Christianity which is thought to have spread across the peninsula from 50 to 350 AD following trade routes. Certainly, by the 5th century, Oman had a bishop named John – the last bishop of Oman being Etienne, in 676 AD. This led to a group of travelling to Medina, converting to Islam and subsequently driving a successful uprising against the unpopular Sassanids. Following the death of Prophet Muhammad, the new Islamic communities south of the Persian Gulf threatened to disintegrate, with insurrections against the Muslim leaders. The Caliph Abu Bakr sent an army from the capital Medina which completed its reconquest of the territory with the battle of Dibba in which 10,000 lives are thought to have been lost
3.
RMJM
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RMJM is one of Britain’s largest international architecture and design firms. Founded in 1956 by architects Robert Matthew and Stirrat Johnson-Marshall, RMJM’s first offices were based in London, in its earlier years, RMJM designed in a functional modern style, with Matthew and Johnson-Marshall as strong proponents of the style in the United Kingdom. Today, RMJM provides architecture, master planning, design, in 2016, RMJM announced the creation of two PRO studios with the capacity to provide sector specific services, namely Sport and Healthcare. RMJM was founded by Stirrat Johnson-Marshall and Robert Matthew in 1956, in 1961 the firm took Tom Spaven, Kenneth Graham, Vernon Lee, John Richards, Chris Carter and Alan Whiteman into partnership. As a result, the changed its name to RMJM & Partners. The change in name also marked a shift towards larger international projects, RMJM began to take on more projects as the need for public sector construction grew, expanding to include a Glasgow studio before extending its reach beyond the British borders. Over the next twenty years RMJM continued to expand, and the firm’s modernist, as RMJM moved further into the emerging markets of the Middle East, East Asia and Africa, it began to establish more offices within the respective countries. Today RMJM Limited now has studios in twenty-five countries, in 1960 RMJM were selected by the Pakistani Government to assist in the regeneration of the nation’s capital, Islamabad. The team tasked with the project were invited to collaborate again in 2011 by the Pakistani Defence Housing Authority. This time, the project involved the design and construction of a new city just outside Karachi. The project included detailed plans for the process of implementing and maintaining the area, along with architectural commissions for housing. The project was hindered by a lack of cartographically correct maps and a barrier, but following the formation of an interdisciplinary office in Jeddah. RMJM established their United Arab Emirates office in Dubai in early 1971, RMJM was the first registered international consultant to be employed by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai. Today RMJM are still involved with projects currently underway in the UAE, including Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi. This was followed by a request to design the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, since first moving into the Asian market over forty years ago, RMJM have been involved in over 150 projects across the East Asian continent. RMJM have been responsible for the design, development and or construction of over 50 buildings in China, today, RMJM have studios in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hong Kong. In 2009, RMJM’s Istanbul Office, working with RMJM’s New-York based design team, announced the commencement of a Mixed Use Development Project in Atasehir, the first phase of the project was completed in late 2011 and was developed in partnership with Turkish real estate development company Varyap. It was Turkey’s first LEED-certified mixed use development, one studio in Zurich, Switzerland, and another in Belgrade, Serbia, joined RMJM in 2015
4.
Deep foundation
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A deep foundation is a type of foundation which transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does, to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile is a structural element of a deep foundation. There are different terms used to different types of deep foundations including the pile, the pier, drilled shafts. Piles are generally driven into the ground in situ, other foundations are typically put in place using excavation. The naming conventions may vary between engineering disciplines and firms, Deep foundations can be made out of timber, steel, reinforced concrete or prestressed concrete. Prefabricated piles are driven into the ground using a pile driver, driven piles are either wood, reinforced concrete, or steel. Wooden piles are made from the trunks of tall trees, concrete piles are available in square, octagonal, and round cross-sections. They are reinforced with rebar and are often prestressed, steel piles are either pipe piles or some sort of beam section. Foundations relying on driven piles often have groups of piles connected by a cap to distribute loads which are larger than one pile can bear. A monopile foundation utilizes a single, generally large-diameter, foundation structural element to all the loads of a large above-surface structure. A transition piece is attached to the now deeply driven pile, an additional layer of even larger stone, up to 0.5 m diameter, is applied to the surface of the seabed for longer-term erosion protection. Rotary boring techniques allow larger diameter piles than any other piling method, Construction methods depend on the geology of the site, in particular, whether boring is to be undertaken in dry ground conditions or through water-saturated strata - i. e. wet boring. Casing is often used when the sides of the borehole are likely to slough off before concrete is poured, for end-bearing piles, drilling continues until the borehole has extended a sufficient depth into a sufficiently strong layer. Depending on site geology, this can be a layer, or hardpan, or other dense. Both the diameter of the pile and the depth of the pile are highly specific to the conditions, loading conditions. Pile depths may vary substantially across a project if the layer is not level. Drilled piles can be tested using a variety of methods to verify the pile integrity during installation, under-reamed piles have mechanically formed enlarged bases that are as much as 6 m in diameter. The form is that of a cone and can only be formed in stable soils
5.
Diagrid
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The diagrid is a framework of diagonally intersecting metal, concrete or wooden beams that is used in the construction of buildings and roofs. It requires less structural steel than a steel frame. Hearst Tower in New York City, designed by Sir Norman Foster, the diagrid obviates the need for columns and can be used to make large column-free expanses of roofing. Another iconic building designed by Sir Norman Foster,30 St Mary Axe, known as The Gherkin, moon, School of Architecture, Yale University The diagrid system of Hearst Tower by the Steel Institute of New York
6.
Guinness World Records
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The book itself holds a world record, as the best-selling copyrighted book of all time. As of the 2017 edition, it is now in its 63rd year of publication, the international franchise has extended beyond print to include television series and museums. On 10 November 1951, Sir Hugh Beaver, then the director of the Guinness Breweries, went on a shooting party in the North Slob, by the River Slaney in County Wexford. After missing a shot at a golden plover, he involved in an argument over which was the fastest game bird in Europe. That evening at Castlebridge House, he realised that it was impossible to confirm in reference books whether or not the golden plover was Europes fastest game bird. Beaver knew that there must be numerous other questions debated nightly in pubs throughout Ireland and abroad and he realised then that a book supplying the answers to this sort of question might prove successful. Beavers idea became reality when Guinness employee Christopher Chataway recommended University friends Norris and Ross McWhirter, the twin brothers were commissioned to compile what became The Guinness Book of Records in August 1954. A thousand copies were printed and given away, after the founding of The Guinness Book of Records at 107 Fleet Street, the first 198-page edition was bound on 27 August 1955 and went to the top of the British best seller lists by Christmas. The following year, it launched in the US, and sold 70,000 copies, since then, Guinness World Records has become a household name and the global leader in world records. Because the book became a hit, many further editions were printed, eventually settling into a pattern of one revision a year, published in September/October. The McWhirters continued to compile it for many years, Ross McWhirter was assassinated by the Provisional Irish Republican Army in 1975. Following Ross assassination, the feature in the show where questions about records posed by children were answered was called Norris on the Spot, Guinness Superlatives Limited was formed in 1954 to publish the first book. Sterling Publishing owned the rights to the Guinness book in the US for decades, and, under their management, the group was owned by Guinness PLC and subsequently Diageo until 2001, when it was purchased by Gullane Entertainment. Gullane was itself purchased by HIT Entertainment in 2002, with offices in New York City and Tokyo, Guinness World Records global headquarters remain in London, while its museum attractions are based at Ripley headquarters in Orlando, Florida, US. Recent editions have focused on record feats by person competitors, many records also relate to the youngest person who achieved something, such as the youngest person to visit all nations of the world, being Maurizio Giuliano. Each edition contains a selection of the records from the Guinness database, as well as new records. The majority of records are no longer listed in the book or on the website. For those unable to wait the 4–6 weeks for a reply, the Guinness Book of Records is the worlds most sold copyrighted book, earning it an entry within its own pages
7.
Leaning Tower of Suurhusen
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The Leaning Tower of Suurhusen is a late medieval steeple in Suurhusen, a village in the East Frisian region of northwestern Germany. According to the Guinness World Records it was the most tilted tower in the world, the Suurhusen steeple remains the worlds most leaning tower that is unintentionally tilted, beating the world-famous Leaning Tower of Pisa by 1. 22°. The Brick Gothic church in Suurhusen is reminiscent of the old fortress churches, originally, it was 32 metres long and 9.35 metres wide. In 1450 the church was shortened by about a quarter and the tower was built in the space and this tower currently leans at an angle of 5. 19°, compared with 3. 97° for the Pisa tower after its stabilization. According to local historian Tjabbo van Lessen, the church was built in the Middle Ages in marshy land on foundations of oak tree trunks which were preserved by groundwater, when the land was drained in the 19th century the wood rotted, causing the tower to tilt. The steeple was closed to the public in 1975 for safety reasons, area,121 square metres,11 m ×11 m Height,27.37 metres Overhang,2
8.
Hearst Tower (Manhattan)
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The Hearst Tower is a building with the addresses of 300 West 57th Street and 959 Eighth Avenue, near Columbus Circle, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The six-story base of the building was commissioned by the founder, William Randolph Hearst. The building was completed in 1928 at a cost of $2 million, the original cast stone facade has been preserved in the new design as a designated Landmark site. Originally built as the base for a skyscraper, the construction of the tower was postponed due to the Great Depression. The new tower addition was completed nearly eighty years later, and 2,000 Hearst employees moved in on June 26,2006, the uncommon triangular framing pattern required 9,500 metric tons of structural steel—reportedly about 20% less than a conventional steel frame. Hearst Tower was the first skyscraper to break ground in New York City after September 11,2001, the building received the 2006 Emporis Skyscraper Award, citing it as the best skyscraper in the world completed that year. Hearst Tower is the first green high-rise office building completed in New York City, the floor of the atrium is paved with heat conductive limestone. Polyethylene tubing is embedded under the floor and filled with circulating water for cooling in the summer, rain collected on the roof is stored in a tank in the basement for use in the cooling system, to irrigate plants and for the water sculpture in the main lobby. 85% of the structural steel contains recycled material. The atrium features escalators which run through a 3-story water sculpture titled Icefall, a wide waterfall built with thousands of glass panels, the water element is complemented by a 70-foot-tall fresco painting titled Riverlines by artist Richard Long. The layout of the Hearst Tower is such that the facade is very jagged, plans for a rig, designed by Tractel-Swingstage, to hold window cleaners, took 3 years and 3 million dollars because of the buildings concave windows, referred to as birds mouths. The device was installed in April 2005 on 420 feet of elevated steel track looping the roof of the tower, on June 12,2013, two window cleaners were trapped on the window cleaning crane partway down from the top of the tower. The unique zigzag grid on the exterior and birds mouth divots on its corners necessitated development of a special scaffold for window washers. Tokyo Ginko Kyokai Building Diagrid Notes Sources Up to the Sky, Hearst Tower, Documentary by Sabine Pollmeier and Joachim Haupt. Hearst Tower Documentary produced by Treasures of New York Stichweh, Dirk, prestel Publishing, Munich 2009, ISBN 3-7913-4054-9. Luxis, Hearst Tower New York, NY Hearst Magazine Tower at Structurae in-Arch. net, The Hearst Magazine Building background New York Architect Images
9.
Beijing National Stadium
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Beijing National Stadium, officially the National Stadium, also known as the Birds Nest, is a stadium in Beijing. The stadium was designed for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, the stadium is currently mostly unused, after having been unsuccessfully suggested as the permanent headquarters of the Beijing football team. The Birds Nest sometimes has some extra temporary large screens installed at the stands of the stadium, located at the Olympic Green, the stadium cost US$428 million. The design was awarded to a submission from the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron in April 2003 after a process that included 13 final submissions. The design, which originated from the study of Chinese ceramics, implemented steel beams in order to hide supports for the retractable roof, leading Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was the artistic consultant on the project. The retractable roof was removed from the design after inspiring the stadiums most recognizable aspect. Ground was broken on 24 December 2003 and the stadium opened on 28 June 2008. A shopping mall and a hotel are planned to be constructed to use of the stadium. In 2001, before Beijing had been awarded the games, the city held a bidding process to select the best arena design, multiple requirements including the ability for post-Olympics use, a retractable roof, and low maintenance costs, were required of each design. The entry list was narrowed to thirteen final designs, the model was approved as the top design by a professional panel and later exhibited to the public. Once again, it was selected as the top design, the nest scheme design became official in April 2003. During their first meeting in 2003, at Basel, the decided to do something unlike Herzog. China wanted to have something new for this very important stadium, in an effort to design a stadium that was porous while also being a collective building, a public vessel, the team studied Chinese ceramics. This line of thought brought the team to the nest scheme, the stadium consists of two independent structures, standing 50 feet apart, a red concrete seating bowl and the outer steel frame around it. Twenty-four trussed columns encase the inner bowl, each one weighing 1,000 tons, despite the random appearance of the Stadium, each half is nearly symmetrical. After a collapse of a roof at the Charles de Gaulle Airport and it was decided to eliminate the retractable roof, the original inspiration for the nest design, as well as 9,000 seats from the design. The removal of the elements helped to bring the project under the construction budget of $290 million. With the removal of the roof, the building was lightened, which helped it stand up to seismic activity, however
10.
Reinforced concrete
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The reinforcement is usually, though not necessarily, steel reinforcing bars and is usually embedded passively in the concrete before the concrete sets. Reinforcing schemes are designed to resist tensile stresses in particular regions of the concrete that might cause unacceptable cracking and/or structural failure. Modern reinforced concrete can contain varied reinforcing materials made of steel, Reinforced concrete may also be permanently stressed, so as to improve the behaviour of the final structure under working loads. In the United States, the most common methods of doing this are known as pre-tensioning and post-tensioning, durability in the concrete environment, irrespective of corrosion or sustained stress for example. François Coignet was a French industrialist of the century, a pioneer in the development of structural. Coignet was the first to use iron-reinforced concrete as a technique for constructing building structures, in 1853 Coignet built the first iron reinforced concrete structure, a four story house at 72 rue Charles Michels in the suburbs of Paris. Coignets descriptions of reinforcing concrete suggests that he did not do it for means of adding strength to the concrete, in 1854, English builder William B. Wilkinson reinforced the concrete roof and floors in the two-storey house he was constructing. His positioning of the reinforcement demonstrated that, unlike his predecessors, in 1877, Monier was granted another patent for a more advanced technique of reinforcing concrete columns and girders with iron rods placed in a grid pattern. Though Monier undoubtedly knew reinforcing concrete would improve its inner cohesion, before 1877 the use of concrete construction, though dating back to the Roman Empire and reintroduced in the mid to late 1800s, was not yet a proven scientific technology. His work played a role in the evolution of concrete construction as a proven. Without Hyatts work, more dangerous trial and error methods would have largely depended on for the advancement in the technology. G. A. Wayss was a German civil engineer and a pioneer of the iron, in 1879 Wayss bought the German rights to Moniers patents and in 1884 started the first commercial use for reinforced concrete in his firm Wayss & Freytag. Up until the 1890s Wayss and his firm greatly contributed to the advancement of Moniers system of reinforcing, ernest L. Ransome was an English-born engineer and early innovator of the reinforced concrete techniques in the end of the 19th century. With the knowledge of reinforced concrete developed during the previous 50 years, ransomes key innovation was to twist the reinforcing steel bar improving bonding with the concrete. Gaining increasing fame from his concrete constructed buildings Ransome was able to build two of the first reinforced concrete bridges in North America, one of the first concrete buildings constructed in the United States, was a private home, designed by William Ward in 1871. The home was designed to be fireproof for his wife, one of the first skyscrapers made with reinforced concrete was the 16-storey Ingalls Building in Cincinnati, constructed in 1904. Many different types of structures and components of structures can be built using reinforced concrete including slabs, walls, beams, columns, foundations, frames, Reinforced concrete can be classified as precast or cast-in-place concrete. Designing and implementing the most efficient floor system is key to creating optimal building structures, small changes in the design of a floor system can have significant impact on material costs, construction schedule, ultimate strength, operating costs, occupancy levels and end use of a building
11.
Prestressed concrete
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Prestressed concrete is a concrete construction material which is placed under compression prior to it supporting any applied loads. A more technical definition is Structural concrete in which stresses have been introduced to reduce potential tensile stresses in the concrete resulting from loads. This compression is produced by the tensioning of high-strength tendons located within or adjacent to the concrete volume, tendons may consist of single wires, multi-wire strands or threaded bars, and are most commonly made from high-tensile steels, carbon fibre or aramid fibre. This can result in improved structural capacity and/or serviceability compared to reinforced concrete in many situations. Typical applications range through high-rise buildings, residential slabs, foundation systems, bridge and dam structures, silos and tanks, industrial pavements, first used in the late-nineteenth century, prestressed concrete has developed to encompass a wide range of technologies. Tensioning of the tendons may be undertaken either before or after the concrete itself is cast, tendons may be located either within the concrete volume, or wholly outside of it. Whereas pre-tensioned concrete by definition uses tendons directly bonded to the concrete, pre-tensioned concrete is a variant of prestressed concrete where the tendons are tensioned prior to the concrete being cast. Pre-tensioning is a common technique, where the resulting concrete element is manufactured remotely from the final structure location. It requires strong, stable end-anchorage points between which the tendons are stretched and these anchorages form the ends of a casting bed which may be many times the length of the concrete element being fabricated. Higher bond strength in early-age concrete allows more economical fabrication as it speeds production, to promote this, pre-tensioned tendons are usually composed of isolated single wires or strands, as this provides a greater surface area for bond action than bundled strand tendons. Unlike those of post-tensioned concrete, the tendons of pre-tensioned concrete elements generally form straight lines between end-anchorages, where profiled or harped tendons are required, one or more intermediate deviators are located between the ends of the tendon to hold the tendon to the desired non-linear alignment during tensioning. Such deviators usually act against substantial forces, and hence require a robust casting bed foundation system, pre-tensioned concrete is most commonly used for the fabrication of structural beams, floor slabs, hollow-core planks, balconies, lintels, driven piles, water tanks and concrete pipes. Post-tensioned concrete is a variant of prestressed concrete where the tendons are tensioned after the concrete structure has been cast. The tendons are not placed in contact with the concrete. At each end of a tendon is an anchorage assembly firmly fixed to the surrounding concrete, once the concrete has been cast and set, the tendons are tensioned by pulling the tendon ends through the anchorages while pressing against the concrete. The large forces required to tension the tendons result in a significant permanent compression being applied to the once the tendon is locked-off at the anchorage. Casting the tendon ducts/sleeves into the concrete before any tensioning occurs allows them to be profiled to any desired shape including incorporating vertical and/or horizontal curvature. Bonded post-tensioning has prestressing tendons permanently bonded to the concrete by the in situ grouting of their encapsulating ducting following tendon tensioning
12.
30 St Mary Axe
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30 St Mary Axe is a commercial skyscraper in Londons primary financial district, the City of London. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004, after plans to build the 92-storey Millennium Tower were dropped,30 St Mary Axe was designed by Norman Foster and Arup Group and it was erected by Skanska, with construction commencing in 2001. The building has become a feature of London and is one of the citys most widely recognised examples of contemporary architecture. The building stands on the sites of the Baltic Exchange, the headquarters of a global marketplace for ship sales and shipping information. On 10 April 1992 the Provisional IRA detonated a bomb close to the Exchange, the Exchange Hall was a celebrated fixture of the ship trading market. The Baltic Exchange and the Chamber of Shipping sold the land to Trafalgar House in 1995, the salvaged material was eventually sold for £800,000 and moved to Tallinn, Estonia, where it awaits reconstruction as the centrepiece of the citys commercial sector. In 1996, Trafalgar House submitted plans for the Millennium Tower, the Gherkin nickname was applied to the current building at least as long ago as 1999, referring to that plans highly unorthodox layout and appearance. On 23 August 2000, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott granted planning permission to construct a much larger than the old Exchange on the site. The site was special because it needed development, was not on any of the sight lines, the plan for the site was to reconstruct the Baltic Exchange. GMW Architects proposed a new rectangular building surrounding a restored exchange—the square shape would have the type of floor plan that banks liked. This gave the architect a free hand in the design, it eliminated the restrictive demands for a large, capital-efficient, money-making building, Swiss Res low level plan met the planning authoritys desire to maintain Londons traditional streetscape with its relatively narrow streets. The mass of the Swiss Re tower was not too imposing, like Barclays Banks former City headquarters in Lombard Street, the idea was that the passer-by in neighbouring streets would be nearly oblivious to the towers existence until directly underneath it. The building was constructed by Skanska, completed in December 2003, the primary occupant of the building is Swiss Re, a global reinsurance company, which had the building commissioned as the head office for its UK operation. The building uses energy-saving methods, which allow it to use half the power that a tower would typically consume. Gaps in each floor create six shafts that serve as a ventilation system for the entire building. The shafts create a giant double glazing effect, air is sandwiched between two layers of glazing and insulates the office space inside. Architects promote double glazing in residential houses, which avoids the inefficient convection of heat across the narrow gap between the panes, but the tower exploits this effect. The shafts pull warm air out of the building during the summer, the shafts also allow sunlight to pass through the building, making the work environment more pleasing, and keeping the lighting costs down
