Solar Power Can Burn You!

Solar power is good, right?  Unless you have wings made of wax and feathers, as in the Greek myth of Icarus, the man of little hubris, who flew too close to the sun with disastrous effect.

 Or unless you are an architect designing glass towers with concave surfaces. Now we have a present day example in The Guardian newspaper of a mash up in London architecture, with a new glass covered building. The architect of the Walkie Talkie building in London has admitted that he predicted it might reflect hot sun rays to the street below, but "didn't realize it would be so hot."

The concave shape of the building was channelling the sun’s rays into a concentrated beam onto Eastcheap, capable of singeing carpets, blistering paintwork and even melting parts of a car's bodywork. One cafe in the focus of the building's glare even managed to toast a baguette and fry an egg outside their shop.

The architect has a track record of creating buildings that burn. His Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas, with a similarly concave form, focused sunlight onto the pool terrace in 2010, hot enough to melt loungers and singe guests' hair. The glass has since been covered in non-reflective film.

So before you recommend concave glass surfaces to your clients, make sure the sun's rays are not going to fry anything you don't want fried!