The “Walkie-Talkie,” a London skyscraper, is being blamed for reflecting light onto a nearby parked car and causing damage to the vehicle.
A Jaguar unfortunately happened to be parked right where a bit of focused light is reflected off the unfinished 37-storey building, BBC News reports. Land Securities, who is a part of the development, says that the unexpected reflection is caused only for a couple hours a day, and only for the next few weeks because of the current elevation of the sun.
Chris Shephard, from the Institute of Physics said, “Fundamentally it’s reflection. If a building creates enough of a curve with a series of flat windows, which act like mirrors, the reflections all converge at one point, focusing and concentrating the light.”
According to Reuters, the damage to the car was a warping of the wing mirror, badge and panels.
The businesses that sit right where the light is reflected said that there has been sun damage on paintwork and carpet burns. A TV crew even fried an egg using the reflection before onlookers.
Re-Style men’s barber shop, opposite the 20 Fenchurch Street skyscraper, manager Ali Akay said, “I thought it was hot in Turkey but this is amazing.”
“When you talk about a meltdown in the city, this is not quite what you expect,” Simon Lamont, a restaurant manager, said notes Reuters. “It’s not even open yet and it’s notorious. They’ll have to rename it the Sun Trap rather than the Walkie Talkie.”
The skyscraper has been in the news before because of its design, The Guardian reported back in December. It bulges outward the higher you go, a “building with more up top.” The skyscraper stands out on the skyline and the Tower of London was nearly added to the World Heritage in Danger list because of the under construction behemoth.
image: Wikimedia Commons
