The Brexit Buildings

The City has a Skyline unique in the World, formed by buildings that may be affected by the Brexit.

Hi, if there is a figure that I must to honor with some reverence, it is my distant uncle, Nicolaus Copernicus is (you know the large and extensive which is my family). He taught us the heliocentric theory, in which the Sun is the central axis of a universe where the planets revolve in perfect circular orbits to around. Today, we know that this is not the case, but who discussed it in 1540?

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Tower Fenchurch 20

The fact is that I, Rodolfo, was enamored of the idea of a universe centered, perfect, circular, and hegemonic. So the Brexit has been, and is, a real blow, a blow to the good economic development of the Euro area. In honor of what it once meant to me, I have decided to make a penultimate (never know) travel to the City to enjoy its wonderful Skyline.

First, I will visit the Tower Fenchurch 20, opened in the year 2,014, popularly known as the Walkie Talkie, a name that it comes to the hair if you look well in its form outside. I admit that I’ve never been inside, but I want to see its SkyGarden, say that it is truly spectacular. The skyscraper is 160 meters high, a constructed area of 64,000 square meters, cost around of 285 million euros and is organised in 37 floors.

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Tower Fenchurch 20

Many Englishmen do not have it in high esteem and they have awarded the dubious honor of being the ugliest building of the year (2015), all because a day in 2013 the reflection of the Sun in the semi-curve facade crystals caused the casting on the part of a Jaguar… trivialities… But, on a serious note, the architect Rafael Viñoly has designed a unique building with higher energy classification, in addition, its surface increases up to 50% of the plant while it rises in height (almost nothing).

 Tower Fenchurch 20
Tower Fenchurch 20

Other proud parents of the creature are the architecture Studio Adamson Associates, they highlighted the use of double and triple-glazed windows, and the incorporation of installations of photovoltaic cells in façade and natural gas to reduce the dreaded carbon footprint. Engineering technicians of Halcrow Yolles, who tell us they had to employ a new BIM system in 4D (whose fourth dimension is the time, clear) to assist in the complex construction.

Lloyds building
Lloyds building

A little further to the North, in Lime Street, I will see an amazing old building built in 1986, with a stylish High Tech unquestionable, capable of causing nightmares and passions at the same time. It is the headquarters of the largest insurance company in the world, Lloyd´s, with which I have already tried the ugly issue of the Brexit (believe me, they are not very happy), is designed by another singular Architect: Richard Rogers, doesn’t sound you? Is one of the winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize (in 2007).

Lloyds building
Lloyds building

The construction of its 55,000 square meters cost 90 million euros, distributed in 12 floors and 84 meters high. To facilitate the work inside, Rogers cut up the facilities, taking to the outside and inlaying in six towers, this also provides a large atrium of light inside, almost unbeatable. Of course, the envelope of stainless steel and glass has induced that this building is known as «The Mechanics Cathedral».

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Willis Towers Watson

Just facing to Lloyd´s is located another prestigious Agency of insurance, Willis Towers Watson, this time, in a building more modern (completed in 2008) but of cutting more classic. Its architect, the known Norman Foster, devised three volumes rising staggering in 68, 97 and 127 meters. The shape of the plant, semi-curve, as a half moon, forms a curious composition that allows a natural relationship with the surrounding buildings and create terraces for higher offices.

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The Leadenhall Building

The responsible for engineering, Ramboll UK, speak to us of the great savings that produces the building, 30% in water consumption, thanks to, among other things, to the collection of rainwater and a 20% due to reflective crystals that cover the facade in its 29 plants. Perpendicular to Lime Street is the Leadenhall Street, where I will go for the second time in the tallest building in the City, the Leadenhall Building.

This time Richard Rogers has had his company Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, for the design and construction of the second highest Tower in the City, with 225 meters and 84.424 square meters built in only 3,000 meters of ground. The skyscraper has a shaped of grater cheese, according to the British, clear, and cost the not inconsiderable figure of 406 million euros.

 The Leadenhall Building
The Leadenhall Building

The promoters, including British Land and Oxford Properties, rented a total of 60.250 square meters of offices. The slender figure of the Skyline English allows the visibility of the Cathedral of San Pablo through the tilt of one of its facades, its 50 plants have a poor surface but win in design. Arup engineering group, points out that the supporting structure is situated mostly in the facade, also is the United Kingdom’s largest steel prefabricated structure.

The Gherkin
The Gherkin

Today I will go to my favorite building in the City, or, better, I leave it for the next day at first hour, to glimpse the sky of the city from 180 meters of The Gherkin, (English humor again). Norman Foster strikes again (the city seems to change between Foster and Rogers) with what I would define as the prototype of iconic skyscrapers that mark time and trend. It has of A-L-L.

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The Gherkin interior

It is the first ecological London skyscraper, it specifies the city spatially marking a before and an after since its construction in 2003, has a space of leisure in the top with view in 360 degrees, and in case outside little, it earned the heart of Londoners (is the dearest building). Arup, another company that repeats, explains as the diagonal exterior structure of steel allows greater resistance to the wind, makes less heavy building and allows six brackets climbing spiral, giving light and ventilation to the more than 45,000 square meters of its 40 plants.

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Tower 42

Of course, also I will visit the Tower 42, built in 1980 and whose height, 183 meters, became it the architectural top of England for many years. From there, to the Heron Tower, the tallest building in the City with 230 meters, finished in 2008 and owned by Heron International (you doubt it?) whose architecture team Kohn Pedersen Fox claims to have designed the most versatile office building of London, with a ventilated facade, panoramic lifts and photovoltaic cells to create electricity.

Heron Tower y sus 230 metros de altura
Heron Tower

Now that I think about it, with two days I do not have time to see the multiple office buildings of the City, analyzing the impact of the Brexit in each of them, even, why not, making business, is well known when there is movement in a market, upward or downward, there is always who wins and who loses. In any case, I will not be who discourage you a visit to London, clear. Bye bye.

Disclosure: The characters that appear in this article, their different personalities and their relationships with each other and with the environment are part of a fiction. The author is not responsible for the views expressed in the article and has no business relationship with any of the companies listed on it.

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