On the Wednesday I visited 30 St Mary Axe, the Gherkin, which have very high security and didn’t give me much information about the building. It was designed in 2000 to 2001 and construction finished in 2003 where it opened in April 2004. The main architect was Norman Foster and he worked with Skanska who were the main contractors and Arup, the structural engineers.

 

Lifecycle and construction of building

The Gherkin is comprised of 3 main building elements, the steel frame, the glass and steel shell and the iron floor supports. The Gherkin is split into 3 parts, the ground and first few floors are all for the public, the top floor is a club and the the 16th floor to the first floor is owned by a Swiss insurance company.

The view from the restaurant is stunning though, I had a look at the website as the security man wouldn’t give me much information about it through conversation.

Each floor has its own energyless ventilation system, the skeleton was preconstructed and made holey out of steel. Bellow is a drawing I did of a part of the base which looked really aesthetically pleasing. The colors were really vibrant and it looked so neatly constructed I thought I’d draw that part of it.