Swiss Re Building

Norman
Foster
sented
by: Imge Yaman;
Ece Akkoyunlu; Hassan Sobhy; Denis Gachev

Design
Londons first
environmentally
sustainable tall building
stands 180m high and
consists of 40 storeys. The
building consumes about
half the energy of most
skyscrapers this size. The
building gradually widens
at each floor plan until it
reaches the 16th where it
then diminishes until it
reaches its apex

 35 km of steel, 10
thousand tons were
used to build the Swiss
Re
24,000 square meters of
glass were used for the
exterior of the building,
equivalent to five
football fields.
360. The top floor is a
circular bar that
overlooks the entire city.
40 floors and 180
meters in height is Swiss
Re, making it the second
highest skyscraper in
London.
76,400 square meters of

External Cladding System :

The buildings exterior cladding system consists of full
glazed , double-skinned facade comprising
Approximately of 5,500 flat triangular and diamond shaped
glass panels.(Profinder).These metal
And glass prefabricated panels are fixed to the diagrid.

The elements of the facade

consist of :
Openable glass screen
Perforated aluminium louvers
( internal sun-screen )
A column casing of aluminium
Facade frame of extruded
aluminium

The glazing to the office

areas consist of a double
glazed outer layer and a
single- glazed inner screen.
Sandwiched in between is
a central ventilated cavity
which reduces heating and
cooling requirements.
Its performance can be
turned
to
maximise
benefits that the prevailing
internal
and
external
environment
Might have to offer. The
solar-control
blinds
intercept solar gain before
it
enters
the
office
environment.

Majorty of the cladding system of St

Mary Axe consist of glazing. Glazing
to the first 38 levels of the building
are to be aluminium framed, while
the domed structure on the
Top is to be frameless glass.
The glass used for the external
cladding is to be produced and
installed with good characterises in
subject to wind Loading , human
impact , safety , security and the UV
Elimination.
Glazing to be used for the cladding is
Solarplus low E Twin Glaze unit by
G.James. It is chosen for its superior
thermal performance. Glass is to be
clear in colour and grey glass for the

 Despite its overall

curved glass shape,
there is only one piece
of curved glass on the
buildingthe lensshaped cap at the very
top.

The upper three levels of

the building from Level 38
provide corporate facilities
for Swiss Re and other
tenants , including private
dining rooms , restaurant
and
an
upper
viewing
Mezzanine
offering
360
degree views over London.
These levels are enclosed
with a steel and glass dome
structure of 30m diameter ,
rising 22m from its support
on the top of the perimeter
diagrid.The dome steelwork
is a fully welded lattice of
intersecting
fabricated
triangular
profiles.
The
efficiency of this structural
arranement results in very

The internal structure of the

building comprises
conventional steel beams
and columns with composite
profiled decking floors.
The total weight of steel
used is approximately
11,000 tones.

Green Building
On each floor, a series of
interstices with 6 pipes made of
natural ventilation system,
functioning as a double glazing.
Pipes used for cooling in the
summer, drawing warm air from
the building, and for heating in
winter. They also allow for
easier entry of light, with a
consequent reduction in the
cost of lighting. The systematic
internal microclimate and
solutions for energy savings
have led to a 50% reduction in
energy consumption in any case
necessary for a building of this

 The building uses energysaving methods which

allow it to use half the
power that a similar tower
would typically
consume.Gaps in each
floor create six shafts that
serve as a natural
ventilation system for the
entire building even
though required firebreaks
on every sixth floor
interrupt the "chimney."
The shafts create a giant
double glazing effect; air
is sandwiched between
two layers ofglazing and
insulates the office space

 Environmentally, its
aerodynamic form encourages
wind to flow around the
building, minimizing load on
the cladding and structure,
reduces the amount of wind
deflected to the ground
compared with a rectilinear
tower of similar size, helping
to maintain pedestrian
comfort at street level, and
creates external pressure
differentials that are exploited
to drive a unique system of
natural ventilation.

Ventilation
Among the buildings most
distinctive features are its
windows, which open to allow
natural ventilation as well as
the building is air-conditioned
so that for up to 40 percent of
the year many of the
mechanical systems can be
supplemented to reduce
energy consumption. To
facilitate this, fresh air is
drawn through the light wells
that spiral up through the
building, while the
aerodynamic form generates
pressure differentials on the

 This system reduces the

towers reliance on air
conditioning and together
with other sustainable
measures, means that the
building is expected to use
up to half the energy
consumed by airconditioned office towers.
Whenever possible,
recycled and recyclable
materials have been
specified throughout the
building.

 360 steel nodes connect the Diagrid.

Maximum load per diagonal column
1,500 tonnes
Over 2,500 tonnes of steel were used
in the construction of
the building.
Tallest lounge/restaurant in London
providing a 360 view
of the cityscape.
55 km of steel were used on this
project.
Over 76,400 square meters of office
space are available for
use.
At any one time 378 people can be
transported vertically at
up to 6 meters per second.

Plumbing
The building uses an electric heat-tracing system which
provides energy-efficient hot water temperature maintenance,
frost protection and snow melting (Process Heat).

Lighting System
The lightwells allow
daylight to penetrate the
building to a further
distance inside the
building then they would
have had the floor gone
all the way to the
perimeter, helping to
improve the internal
environment

Fire System
The spiral lightwell
arrangement allows for a
fire escape strategy based
on a variation of phased
evacuation. The building
is divided into fire safety
zones. This allows for the
evacuation of one area at
a time as opposed to the
whole building at once. A
system of smoke curtains
form smoke reservoirs in
the lightwells.

Sources:

http://www.slideshare.net/adadarmon/swiss-re-building-london

http://www.victorbuyck.be/uploads/projects/doc_14.pdf

Swiss Re; Sustainability at 30 St Mary Axe retrieved 06/04/09