Glass Tube Field
Tower Place, London
Building architect: Sir Norman Foster & Partners
Engineer: Arup Facade Engineering
1998 - 2003

The architects designed a public space between two new buildings adjacent to the Tower of London.  The extremely delicate facade structure in this suspended curtain wall allowed us to play with the characteristics of light as a defining element of the space.
The structural system is so attenuated that the glass itself becomes a diaphanous membrane.  Using colourless semi-reflective coatings on one inner surface of the laminated glass it is possible to not only reflect light into the shaded areas of the atrium, but also to play with the superimposition of reflected and transmitted images seen in or through the glass surface.
A field of glass props appears to support the semi-reflective plane, hovering above the threshold of the public space.  Each prop is made from a glass tube with a post-tensioned stainless steel rod running through the centre.  The great strength of glass in compression combined with its apparent delicacy contributes to the illusion that the wall is unsupported.
James Carpenter, Luke Lowings and Richard Kress developed the concept design and feasability studies for the visual and structural concept of the glass tubes while working together for JCDA.