THE DEATH RAY BUILDINGS

The “Death Ray” Buildings

By

Architect Rafael Viñoly Beceiro

(A wrong architecture decision)

Have you seen the movie star wars??

If yes, than you must have seen that laser beams that kills mortals.

One of the architects has design the buildings twice by mistake that creates same effects. One is the famous Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas another is “The walkie talkie” building in London.

Vdara Hotel & Spa is a 16,00,000 sq.ft. (1,50,000 m²) condo-hotel and spa located within the City Center complex across from Aria Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Vdara opened on December 1, 2009 as a joint venture between MGM Resorts International & Infinity World Development. It is a 57 storied luxury hotel & also received AAA Four Diamond award in 2011. But we are not here to discuss about hotel.

The hotel is designed very beautifully from inside as well as from outside. But architect by mistakenly didn’t considered the sun!! The design of the building block is slightly curved as you can see on the picture & have full glazing from top to bottom of the building. This will result in building acting as concave mirror. Eventually in day time sun rays gather as mirrors focal point and produce heating effect about 70-80°c.

In an interview with The Guardian, Mr. Architect admitted his fault.  “We made a lot of mistakes with the building,” he said.  But, like a certain president’s offspring, he couldn’t leave well enough alone, and continued to talk himself into a corner.  “I knew this was going to happen,” he said.  He then claimed that there weren’t any tools or software that could’ve predicted the death rays, which experts have said is patently false.  When the Guardian brought up the Vegas tower, Vinoly said it was “a totally different problem.”  He then thoroughly confused things by revealing that he’d designed a solar furnace for a Chinese company, a curved glass building that would intentionally focus sunlight to create electricity. 

Because of this effect this hotel got its new name “the death ray building”.

20 Fenchurch Street is a commercial skyscraper in London that takes its name from its address on Fenchurch Street, in the historic City of London financial district. It has been nicknamed 'The Walkie-Talkie' because of its distinctive shape. Construction was completed in spring 2014, and the three-floor 'sky garden' was opened in January 2015. The 38-storey building is 160 m (525 ft) tall, making it the sixth-tallest building in the City of London and the 12th tallest in greater London. This was his second mistake. Where, the Vdara hotel has its curvature in horizontal plane. 'The Walkie-Talkie' building has its curvature in vertical plane. As you see in picture. The building has vertical louvers in its original design but then they have made change to cut the cost of the building. The heating effect of the building is tremendous that it melt cars on the streets. You can check it on NEWS!!

Other than heating it has one more problem of glare!! Because of glare you face too much disturbance in driving or even walking on the streets. One cannot see what is coming from the other side due to glare of the building. But now the solution for both the problem is submitted by Mr. Architect is installing horizontal louvers on the façade.

On the ending note, these two building are the interesting case studies for the students to learn things like how a fancy building can create troubles for others!!!

Hope this article will help you learn more.

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