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Comment by jameshart | Hacker News Reader

It's less of a systemic problem with architects in general, more of a specific issue for one architect in particular: Rafael Viñoly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Vi%C3%B1oly). He designed the Vdara hotel in Vegas that had a concave facade which melted sunloungers; and he's also responsible for the "Walkie Talkie" building in London which we're discussing here. It's almost as if he has a blindspot when it comes to this problem. Maybe he looked at one of his own buildings too long.

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The Frank Gehry-designed Concert Hall in LA had the same problem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_Concert_Hall#Reflec...). Gehry uses proprietary 3D design software based on Catia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CATIA) to design the curved surfaces of his buildings. He's spun that off as a product in its own right (http://www.gehrytechnologies.com).

In Gehry's case, they did an after-the-fact analysis and dulled some of the reflective surfaces (it's quite noticeable, going from shiny to matte). Presumably, given the trend towards more sculptural buildings, analysis of reflections will become standard. It's not hard to do.

No, it is a systemic problem. If a civil engineer routinely designed building that bits fell off and destroyed parked cars, he'd lose his license to practice! Where's the Guild of Architects when you need them?

Shouldn't the building require a review by the engineers after it is designed by the architect ?

Yes, in fact the cladding system will have been designed by specialist facade engineers, so they are probably at least partly to blame for this.

What, you mean like the civil engineer who designed the wobbly bridge? [0] Even though the phenomenon of synchronised footsteps causing large oscillations due to positive feedback is well enough known that there is another bridge in London built over 150 years earlier which has a sign on it saying 'Soldiers marching across this bridge must break step'.

I don't like the 'walkie talkie' and I'm not a fan of gesture architects like Vinoly, Libeskind, Ghery etc. But, there are plenty of other far less obtuse critiques of this kind of architecture than 'GOD you forgot to model the solar rays on the 3rd of September 2013, you IDIOT!!!'.

People do make mistakes, including engineers. And, by the way, the engineer who designed the wobbly bridge is still very highly regarded in the profession.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Bridge,_London

Edit: corrected grammar and moved sentence to clarify.

Making the mistake once is forgivable, but twice? After all the press from his previous parabolic building, you'd think he'd give it a second thought!

Haha, that would be amazingly hilarious if it didn't involve property destruction and waste.

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