How would you feel if you left your shiny new car parked next to a skyscraper on to discover several hours after that the said skyscraper had played a goldsmith by melting it? That’s the story of Mr Martin Linsday whose Jaguar was parked in front of a newly built 37-storey skyscraper only to find out the car had been melted from converging sunlight from the skyscraper.
The skyscraper which is dubbed “Walkie Talkie” because of its distinct appearance has a bend in its Façade that allows the edifice act like some sort of converging mirror. The street facing the building is on the receiving end of the sunlight usually converged up to 70 degree Celsius.
Poor Mr Martin who had no idea what fate had in store for him had then parked his car that morning only to return to its ruins. The story about “his accident” is quite interesting to note. It’s said that a photographer who was taking a stroll near the area spotted the car ‘melting’ and casually asked a stranger standing on the footpath if “he had seen that car,” adding that “the owner won’t be happy.” The interesting thing is that the stranger was the owner and he reportedly replied: “I am the owner and that’s pretty awful.” There was also a note tucked under the car’s wiper on the windscreen from the skyscraper construction company informing the car owner about the fate of his car and asking that he gave them a call.
The incident paved the way for a debate on the sustainability of this magnificent edifice design seeing that it has started affecting the lives of people walking on the street. Reaching up to 80 degree Celsius, the temperature from the convergence could easily cause severe burns to a passerby. This has made the construction company go to work on revamping the design to be less dangerous.
