30 St Mary Axe

30 St Mary Axe, The Gherkin often (English for pickle ) called or Swiss Re Tower, is a 180 m high skyscraper in the financial district of the City of London. It was created between 2001 and 2004 by the architect Ken Shuttleworth and Lord Norman Foster at the site of the destroyed by an IRA attack Baltic Exchange. He is an office tower of the reinsurer Swiss Re. In its external form it resembles the built about the same time in Barcelona Torre Agbar.

Building and construction

The 41 - story building was purchased in April 2004. For the realized by the Austrian steel construction company Waagner Biró construction 10,548 tons of steel were used. The structure consists of intertwined helical strands, a kind of hose braid. From this follows a panel design consisting entirely of triangular and diamond-shaped glass panels. Placed particular emphasis building owners and designers to sustainability and energy efficiency. The total area of the building is 47 310 m². The office areas not cover the whole interior, but are created annular. The core of the building supplies the individual levels of energy and water. Open cover plates and square windows and close depending on the weather outside, controlled by computer systems. There are atriums up to six floors, which provide near natural ventilation. The HVAC is active only in extreme weather conditions.

The Swiss Re as the original owner sold the building for 630 million British pounds (approx. € 950 million) in February 2007 to the German real estate company IVG Immobilien, but it will continue to use as the main tenant (55 % to at least 2031 ).

Occurrence in movies

The film Basic Instinct 2 from the 2006 plays to a large extent in the 30 St Mary Axe. In Match Point in 2005 (directed by Woody Allen), the main character Chris Wilton has his office on the 30 St Mary Axe. Similarly, the Securities trader Max Skinner office is in the movie A Good Year in the " Gherkin". Even at the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is short to see the tower. In an episode of the British mini-series Sherlock ( TV series) " The Blind Banker", the building is shown many times, so also from the perspective of the balcony above.

In the documentary The Gherkin Building, the building itself plays the leading role. The film follows the entire creation process of 30 St Mary Axe from 1999 to 2005.

The future of the building and its eventual collapse after a fictitious disappearance of mankind is treated in episode 3 of season 2 of the docu-fiction series Life After People ( " The Cradle of Civilization ", USA 2010).

Sir Norman Foster's " Gherkin", in the foreground the Thames

The 180 m high Swiss Re Tower seen from the entrance

The Swiss Re Tower, in the foreground of the Tower of London