A concave building? What madness

Now if they had built it in Tobermory it would provide an excellent way of transmitting energy to a certain former lighthouse keeper's cottage...

hopefully everyone whos property and vehicles sue the develeper and architect for damages. the design was badly thought out.

i was shocked by the mat inside one of the shops that started to burn. the building is dangerous.

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mhm x v i x i i i

ok. that was funny.

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In article , Matty F writes

See thread: 'your car's bucked, could you give us a call?" Mon, 2 Sep

Presumably they'd have been safe in either NZ or Scotland.

Architect is reported to Venezuelan or similar so he may have got his safe pointing direction the wrong way up.

Yes, I did search for this story before I posted, and the "bucked" story appeared to be about a typo and didn't have a summary of the problem, so I didn't follow the links.

There's plenty of sun in NZ. The building appears to be concave on all sides, so the direction of the sun would always be a problem. There are several other examples of concave buildings causing a problem in the last 10 years. I'd be worrying about other aspects of this building, considering the ignorance of the architect.

Including the Vdara.

"Solar convergence or "death ray"

The building's reflective surface and concave design can act as a parabolic reflector to create a phenomenon in which the reflected rays of the sun can create dangerously hot conditions at particular points on the pool deck. Employees have called the phenomenon the "Vdara death ray"; the management has described it as a "solar convergence". As the sun's position in the sky changes during the day, the problem affects different areas of the deck.[23][24] According to the Las Vegas Review Journal, proposed solutions included adding more foliage to the pool deck and offering larger sun umbrellas.[24] The architect, Rafael Viñoly, also designed the "Walkie-Talkie" skyscraper which has been dubbed the "Walkie-Scorchie" due to a similar problem.[25]"

(Have to say, Wiki manages to be more up-to-date than paper encyclopaedias ever managed! :-) )

There was a Jag apparently that had a grands worth of damage.

In a similar vein but on a much smaller scale, my wife does quite a lot of fine needlework, and has a large plastic lens on a flexible stalk to help her see fine detail. She has a work room with a window that faces south, and a ghetto blaster for background entertainment. One day we noticed an elongated hole or track burnt through the case of the blaster, a couple of cm long. We reckoned that the sun shining through the lens had been focused onto the case and had melted a track as it moved round. We were lucky nothing caught fire, and she now takes great care to keep the lens covered and out of the sun at all times when not in use.

What a weird idea? All I can say is, just as well they did not build it in or around the Equator then. Brian

Smaller scale, but not uncommon. A few years ago there was a piece on Watchdog (or similar) where various people had caught small fires due to lens effects caused by glass ornaments and mirrors. Always something to keep in mind with south facing aspects.

Yes, the same architect.

Yes, the same architect.

Did you see the high tech solution applied in that situation, external window film, it'll be scratched and peeling in a few years and needing replaced but the idiot architect hasn't learned his lesson,

Yes, hats off to the contributors, despite their alleged cliquiness.

I used to have bullion glass in a window. There was a scorch mark across a curtain lining drawn behind it.

That does appear to be the default answer for any small job on a Jag. Expensive cars to run. Pretty, but expensive.

the stupidity is that ALL you have to do is arrange for all the panels to be at slightly different angles.

Juts three different angles like bay windows, would have pushed the effect down to 30%.

Alternate different angles on different floors as well, and its all solved.

Chris Hogg :

I have a similar lens, which has a hinged flap to cover the lens, and until now I had no idea why it was there.

and depreciate faster than used toilet paper. I've owned three. Great toys but boy, no way are they an investment.

Aye but then the building wouldn't have the pure reflection on it's sides, there would be discontinuties of the reflection at each window boundary. This would "spoil the look" of the building.

Ah, but there's good in that too. Just let somebody else pay the depreciation and VAT for you.

who would that be then?