How Does A Skyscraper Melt A Car?

The "hot spot" on Eastcheap, in London.

Who, what, why: How does a skyscraper melt a car? A London skyscraper dubbed the Walkie-Talkie has been blamed for reflecting light which melted parts of a car parked on a nearby street. What happened? It's like starting a fire with a parabolic mirror. "Fundamentally it's reflection. If a building creates enough of a curve with a series of flat windows, which act like mirrors, the reflections all converge at one point, focusing and concentrating the light," says Chris Shepherd, from the Institute of Physics.

The half-finished 37-storey "Walkie Talkie"- nicknamed such because of its tapering rectangular design - is indeed a curvy building. Its design, which has also been compared to a brimming pint glass, has come under controversy before. It transpires the car, a Jaguar on Eastcheap in the City of London, was parked at just the spot where the focused light landed.

The car wasn't the only casualty. There have also been reports of a smouldering bicycle seat, singed fabric and blistered paintwork. Land Securities, which is developing the tower with the Canary Wharf Group, says it is working on a solution and has taken the emergency measure of suspending the parking bays beneath the glare. They have described the problem as a phenomenon caused by the current elevation of the sun in the sky. It is thought it can last for two hours a day and might only be a problem for the next two or three weeks. But how common is it for skyscrapers to damage cars or property in this way?

Architectural critic Jonathan Glancey says the story is not unprecedented. In 2003, the opening of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, designed by architect Frank Gehry, hit a similar stumbling block. "The building was clad from head to toe, right down to the pavement, in stainless steel panels, and they would send the sun dazzling across the sidewalks to hotspots where people were. It was measured up to 60C (140F). "Local people living there complained they were having to crank their air conditioning up to maximum to cool things down," he says.

Blinding glare also affected drivers passing the building. After computer models and sensor equipment identified the panels causing the problem, they were sanded down to break up the sun's rays. There are also plenty of lesser-known, smaller scale sun traps caused by architecture, according to Shepherd. "The Eden shopping centre in High Wycombe has a shop with a series of windows in a curve that all happen to concentrate the light at one point. If you walk across that point you can feel some warmth," he says.  There are also those caused by design, rather than accident.

Solar furnace in the French Pyrenees.

Solar furnaces, the largest of which is in Odeillo in France, use mirrors to gather sunlight and create high temperatures, usually for industry. The temperature at focal points can reach 3,500C (6,330F), with the heat used for testing various materials, generating electricity and the design of solar plants. Shepherd says the same principle is also used in reflecting telescopes. A curved mirror collects the light and reflects it to a focus. "It has to be perfectly curved to get a clear picture - if not you get hazy blob concentrations," he says. The physics is the same for sound as for light, he adds. "The curved mirror effect can be used to focus sounds - or the reverse, if a speaker stands at one end of an amphitheatre, and wants to project to an audience."

Bike saddle - One reading suggests hot spot was 91.3C today (196.34 Fahrenheit).

When it comes to the skyscraper and the car, Shepherd says the fact the car was black - a good absorber of light - would have had an impact on the damage caused by the concentrated heat. He says the only parts that seem to have suffered are plastic, which is significant, as plastics generally have a much lower melting point than the steel of the car body. Some plastics such as PVC - polyvinyl chloride - can melt at 100C, but they can soften before that. One reading taken today suggested the hotspot was 91.3C.

As for the Walkie-Talkie, Shepherd thinks the developers could employ a number of possible solutions. "They could coat the windows to reduce reflection - which would be a cheap fix - but the downside of that is it could reduce the light entering the building. "Another solution would be for them to misalign the window frames, to slightly alter them by about a millimetre, but that would be very expensive," he says.

Also see -  Energy Efficient Windows Melting Houses & Cars

Canary Wharf Window Cleaners - The UK's Scariest Job?

Two window cleaners are lowered over the balcony above the 50th floor of the One Canada Square skyscraper in London's Canary Wharf - currently the UK's tallest building. Cleaning all the windows takes a month.

A canary's view from Canary Wharf: The window cleaners with the scariest job in Britain. These daring window cleaners must have a real head for sights. Every day Lee Mason and Paul Wright winch themselves up the face of Britain's tallest building to wash its 3,860 windows, one by one. But despite having to battle strong winds and freezing temperatures, they say the views of the Capital from the top of Canary Wharf's One Canada Square make it all worth while. Click pictures to enlarge.

Dizzy heights: Lee and Paul take a break from cleaning One Canada Square's 3,960 windows.

Precarious: They rely on a few thin cables that winch their specially-made gondola up and down the tower.

The amazing pictures were taken from the top floor of the 800ft tower, showing the Thames River snaking through London alongside St Paul's Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament as well as the city's other architectural icons. Paul, who has done the job for nearly seven years, told Docklands newspaper in November: 'It probably is one of the scariest jobs in Britain, and the first time you go over it turns your stomach, but I’m used to it now.

Don't look down: They clean each window one by one.

Grafters: Lee and Paul hard at work, left. And 800ft One Canada Square from the ground, right.

'You’re away from everything and in your own little world. It’s an absolutely amazing view and it’s very peaceful.' Let's just hope they don't forget their sandwiches . . . as it's a long way to the nearest shop.

Take a break: They battle strong winds and freezing temperatures but say the view makes it all worth while.

Also see previous blog here.

Britain’s Scariest Job? Meet Canary Wharf’s Window Cleaner

So the producers had to pick a scary job for UK disc jockey & celebrity, Chris Evans (pictured above & left).  The "job from hell" was to become a window cleaner for a day on  London's tallest iconic tower. The One Show host cleaned the windows outside One Canada Square in Canary Wharf as part of a ‘grin and bear it’ stunt for Children in Need. People were asked to vote for one of the presenters - Evans, Jason Manford or Alex Jones - to do a job out of their comfort zone, with the idea raising more than £100,000 for the cause. The film of how the Radio 2 DJ got on as a window cleaner was shown on Children in Need’s live show on BBC One, with Evans admitting he was “petrified”. He tweeted: “Couldn’t tweet while I was up there, no loose objects allowed and no signal! I was properly ******* myself,” adding before the stunt: “All for the kids. That’s what I keep telling myself at least.”

Britain’s scariest job? Meet Canary Wharf’s window cleaner: Paul Wright’s work is cold, painstaking and tough - oh, and it happens to be 235 metres above ground. The 24-year-old is one of four people employed to clean the windows of Britain’s tallest building, One Canada Square. His unusual living came to national fame last week when TV presenter Chris Evans joined him for a morning’s work as part of a stunt for Children in Need.

The idea was that One Show host Evans would be subjected to a ‘job from hell’ - but Paul (pictured below) insists there’s nothing to be afraid of. “It probably is one of the scariest jobs in Britain, and the first time you go over it turns your stomach, but I’m used to it now,” he said. “Funnily enough my mum gets more scared - she doesn’t like it. When she saw the clip on Children In Need she had to turn away. “Chris was terrified at first when he stepped away from the roof but he did a decent job once he finally let go of the side!”

Paul and his colleagues from Classic London are lowered down from cradles at the top of the skyscraper, each secured to the building to stop it blowing in the wind. The window cleaners have special training to operate the cradles and are always harnessed and sent down in pairs. The building has 4,000 windows and takes four people a month to clean - after which the job starts all over again.

Such extreme work might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Paul, who lives on the Isle of Dogs, says there are perks to the job. “You’re away from everything and in your own little world. It’s an absolutely amazing view and it’s very peaceful,” said Paul, who has done the job for almost seven years. “The only problem is it does get cold - sometimes we have to use anti-freeze in the water. Oh, and you can’t forget to bring a drink - it’s a long way back once you’re out cleaning!

“It’s been a strange week. I was on Radio 2, Children In Need and the Alan Titchmarsh Show. Chris Evans also invited me to the One Show after the shift and we went for a drink once the show was finished. It was fun, but it’s time to get back to work now.”

Canary Wharf window cleaners committed to minimising accident claims: Window cleaners at One Canada Square are backing a national safety campaign to prevent accident claims resulting from falls in the workplace. Peter Kyte Frics, managing director of Canary Wharf Management Limited, explained that safety is always top of the agenda among staff. He added: "We are conscious of the fact that many accidents in the workplace can be directly related to slips, trips and falls. "We do all we can through training to make sure that all workers on the Canary Wharf estate are aware of hazards." The support is being offered to the Health and Safety Executive's Shattered Lives campaign, with the regulator urging employees and employers throughout the UK to take simple steps to reduce injury risks in the workplace. 

Wharf window cleaners rescued from cradle: Firefighters using ropes and a cherry picker came to the rescue of a pair of Canary Wharf window cleaners stuck on the side of an office building today. The two men were trapped in their cradle, jammed on a ledge at the fifth floor of 25 North Colonnade, which is occupied by the FSA, above the Crossrail site. A call was made around 1pm to the fire brigade and firefighters arrived on the scene a few minutes later. The men were brought down at 2.50pm. After securing the cradle, firefighters lowered them onto a fourth-floor balcony. Crowds of Wharf workers gathered below to watch the pair being lifted to safety.