Who had the bright idea (pun intended) to shape the side of a building like this? TV interview with an solar physicist:
Me, a while ago, but they beat me to it. Centrally controllable sun deflectors at the windows would allow you to point your death ray in the desired direction... muahahahah...
I laughed pretty hard when I saw this story this morning. Anyone who has taken even one course in optics would be able to figure out what was going to happen when you point a concave surface at the sun. The Walt Disney Concert Hall had a similar problem but they solved it by sanding the surfaces to dull them. This one will probably be a lot tougher to solve - I don't think that they will be willing to sand the windows. That's a great one DH! Too funny. :rofl:
A melted Jaguar is a shame. But next thing could be a fuel truck, a corn transporter or an ice cream van.
The Brits have some form over this sort of mistake. The history faculty building at Cambridge univ. (built in the 1960s) was designed to make full use of natural north-facing light. Unfortunately, something got screwed up and they actually built it with the plan rotated through 180 degrees, so all that glass gets full sunshine all day! There were endless problems with cracked glass panes, water leaks, etc - not to mention a steady stream of ambulances carrying away historians with heatstroke. At least they found out about the "walkie talkie" while the builders were still there. Given the usual british climate, there might not have been any problems before the warranty had expired!
Have you never heard of the Las Vegas death ray hotel? Same principle: Curved building, heated floor/pool/tourist, clueless architects.
Of all places on Earth to put an enormous concave lens, I would think London would be the safest. When did they start getting sunshine there?
After chasing this building down, I have a correction for you. You said clueless architects. You should have said clueless architect. Singular. The same person, Rafael Viñoly, designed both buildings. And now he's designing another, this time in Abu Dhabi.
Wow. I am not sure whether I should be glad now that it is not a whole generation of architects building superlenses or whether I am amazed that he did not learn. At least Abu Dhabi is an ambitious project. There is so much sunlight that he might be able to create some real damage this time.
