30 St Mary Axe 'The Gherkin' Research

In this project I have decided to create the 30 St Mary Axe also known as the Gherkin in London using 3DS Max making it as accurate as possible. In this section i will show my research process in making the building itself.































This is an architectural plan of the Gherkin building by Foster & Partners

• Each floor rotates 5 degrees from the last but the spiralling atriums were not fully realised. They stop every six floors for fire safety reasons.
• The only curved piece of glass on the entire building is the very top piece that crowns it.
• The advantages of the shape are numerous - at the bottom it tapers in creating more ground space and allowing a new public plaza to build whilst circular towers also create less downdrafts. Tapering at the top into the crown reduces wind resistance further.
  
• The lifts can carry a maximum of 378 people at any one time reaching speeds of 6 metres a second.
• The floor to ceiling heights are 2.75 metres, three centimeters more than is needed to have accomodated the worlds tallest man ever. Of course he couldn't have worn heels.
• The building contains the highest dining space in London at 163 metres. The entire top floors are occupied by the company restaurant for Swiss Re.
• The building weighs 70,000 tonnes, contains 333 piles in the foundations, 35 kilometres of structural steel at 11,000 tonnes, and 24,000 square metres of glass cladding.
• Almost all of the plant space is located externally on an adjacent six story structure at 20 Bury Street.

This is a plan for one of the floors within the building.












This is a birds eye view of the surrounding area of the gherkin, this way i can plan out how I will set out the scene in my video and in renders.



















This is a development drawing of the gherkin showing the design of the diamond shapes and how it may look within a London scene.

Roof Height (AOD)

194.90

Roof Height (AGL)

179.80

Top Floor Height (AGL)

163.00

Floor To Ceiling Height

2.75

Total Floors (O.G)

41

Total Floors (U.G)

1

Number of Lifts

17