Gherkin With a View by RhineRoll
Designed by the ubiquitous Sir Norman Foster and commissioned by Swiss Re (insurance) group, this 180 metre highrise in London's financial district is bettern known as "The Gherkin"-- for obvious reasons! Some people find this also to be a very erotic design, but I won't comment on this any further...not a laddish thing anyway... ;)The building not only looks -- let's say "appealing" :)) -- but also has some pretty smart features like an advanced air circulation system allowing for natural air flow half of the year saving a lot of electricity which otherwise would have been necessary to run the air conditioning. Unfortunately, as a tourist, unless you know somebody who works inside, one can only admire the building from outside. This seems to follow a recent trend of keeping the public out of skyscrapers. While it might have something to do with security concerns after 9/11, I believe this to be quite wrong. If you occupy so much prominent space in a city, you do have a responsibility to give something back to the people who -- through government -- allowed you to go ahead with your monster project. At least, the gherkin, together with its less sightly highrise neighbours, does provide some welcome shade on a hot summer's day :)
