It's 2010. If you stand right here, just off this hotel pool in Las Vegas, at a specific time of day, you could die. Violently. Same goes for this spot right here on East Sheep in London. Cause of death?
These two buildings respectively. Well, technically the sun reflecting off of the windows of these two buildings, respectively. And to add to this truly odd phenomenon, it all traces back to one very stubborn man.
Why? How? What?
A bizarre beam of light radiates onto the street. It's like being under a magnifying glass. You were literally being burned. Some have managed to fry an egg. It got up to 92.6 degrees.
That's Celsius. This was an attack by the Death Ray. Enter a story revolving around fascinating physics phenomena, reckless architecture, melting steel and burned human flesh.
This is the Weird World of Solar Death Rays. This is Bill Pintus, a lawyer from Chicago who enjoys spending time in Las Vegas every now and then. He's chilling at the Vedara Hotel on the Strip. He takes a little swim in the pool, then returns to his lounge chair.
Martin Lindsay drives into the city for some errands. It's a hot sunny day He parks his Jaguar right behind 20 Frenchurch Street on East Sheep before heading off for about an hour By afternoon, it's really really hot in Vegas. Bill doesn't mind the escalating heat until suddenly his hair starts burning.
Martin returns to his beloved car only to find someone taking pictures of it. He comes closer and notices the car's body is partially melted. Bill's hair, head and legs are burned. He rushes to the shade of an umbrella, but it offers little relief.
The sun is so intense and blistering that no matter where he goes, he can't seem to find an escape. Both of these stories actually happened. It's completely warped. You can get your hand underneath here and you can get your hand in here.
It's absolutely ruined. Both incidents are due to a phenomenon called solar convergence, or much cooler, Solar Death Rays The physics behind it is fairly simple. When parallel light rays strike a parabolically curved surface, they are all reflected to a single point known as the focal point.
The distance between the surface and the focal point is called focal length, similar to the focal length of a camera lens. Depending on how stretched or compressed the parabola curve is, the focal point changes. Either way, the result is one concentrated, very hot beam of light, sometimes capable of melting objects and causing serious burns.
These rays can even melt rocks. On YouTube you'll find numerous videos of people showcasing their DIY home-built death ray reflectors. A nice turkey burger. In the cases of Bill and Martin, the reflective, curved glass facade of the Vedara Hotel and the facade of 20 French Church in London were responsible. The focal points of both buildings happen to be precisely where humans interact.
Luckily, these particular death rays only occur sporadically. The alignment of the sun and the parabolic surface have to be just right. But a few hours of death-raying on a random Thursday can do more than enough damage.
Several reports of burned hair, melted plastic, extreme sunburns, deformed vehicles, and charred doormats went viral. One journalist even fried an egg in front of 20 French Church to demonstrate the intense heat. It is so hot. It is so hot. There you go.
He has just cooked that egg on a frying pan on the streets of London. Fortunately, in the cases of the two buildings, no one was critically injured, at least physically. Martin might be a little traumatized from seeing his jack all burned up. If, for example, a baby had been inside the car, the outcome could have been far more serious. And luckily, no one fell asleep at the hotel pool in Vegas long enough to get seriously burned or even killed.
Reports show that temperatures soared up to 117 degrees Celsius on East Sheep, while at the Vedara temperatures increased by 20 degrees Celsius around the pool. Not to be kept an obvious, but that seems like some seriously sh** design, right? All of this could have been avoided with proper planning and a few design adjustments.
So who is responsible? As it turns out, one guy designed both buildings. This is the Uruguayan architect Rafael Vignoli.
He seems to really enjoy his parabolical shapes. Reports show that he was even aware of the problem way before the verdara was constructed. The windows of the hotel had been preemptively covered with a custom film to reduce the sun's effects by 70%.
Which clearly didn't help all that much. So considering that Vignoli was well aware of the issue by the time the verdara was built, why would he make the same mistake again? when designing 20 Fenchurch, also nicknamed Walkie Talkie, Walkie Scorchy, or the Fryscraper. Gotta love British media.
It is ridiculous. You don't need to go on holiday, basically. I'm going to Croatia in a couple of weeks.
I think I might just pitch a tent down here and actually sunbathe here. It's really good. In 2013, Vignoli gave The Guardian a legendary interview in which he explained himself. That was a completely different problem, said Vignoli, insisting he was following a master plan that specified arc-shaped towers. We pointed out that would be an issue too, but who cares if you fry somebody in Las Vegas, right?
Regarding the walkie-scorchy, he said, I knew this was going to happen, but there was a lack of tools or software that could be used to analyze the problem accurately. Hmm, actually, there were many tools available to architects to avoid solar convergence issues at the time. But somehow he didn't stop talking at this point during the interview and just went on.
When it was spotted on a second design iteration, we judged the temperature was going to be about 36 degrees, but it's turned out to be more like 72 degrees. They are calling it the death ray, because if you go there, you might die. It is phenomenal, this thing.
Phenomenal is kind of an odd choice of words when describing that a thing you made could burn people to death. But naturally, Vignoli wasn't done here. When I first came to London years ago, it wasn't like this. Now you have all these sunny days.
So you should blame this thing on global warming too, right? So many hot takes and such a short interview. Rafael Vignoli passed away in 2023, leaving some unresolved questions about his designs.
Twenteyfanchurch was awarded the title of the worst building in the UK in 2015. If you google solar convergence today, a planning advice document on the matter by the City of London is the top result. The problematic side of the walkie-talkie was outfitted with special sun blinds in 2014. Permanent awnings were installed on the upper floors while a brise au lait was added to the remaining glass facade. In Vegas, Next to the non-reflective film that was applied to the glass facade of the Vedara, hotel staff provided umbrellas and pot plants at the pool.
And despite the name, solar defrays can also be quite practical. For instance, parabolic reflectors can channel sunlight to dark places. This effect is used in a project in New York City where solar reflectors light in underground space.
Parabolic reflectors outside harness sunlight, directing it toward the focal point. This concentrated light is then refracted multiple times and directed to an underground space. Another parabolic mirror at the end spreads it evenly throughout the space. Or take this solar furnace in France. The concentrated heat evaporates water to generate power.
Temperatures at the focal point can reach up to 4432 degrees Celsius. Vignoli would be proud. When designing buildings, a strong foundation in physics and math is clearly essential.
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