Foggo Associates has designed a curved high-rise in central London at 70 St Mary Axe, which is widely known as the Can of Ham due to its distinctive shape.
The 21-storey tower stands on the same street as the Foster + Partners-designed skyscraper at 30 St Mary Axe, which is called the Gherkin, in a grouping of high-rises in the City of London.
Officially named 70 St Mary Axe, the 90-metre-tall block contains 28,000 square metres of office space on its upper 20 floors above 430 square-metres of shops on the first, ground and basement level.
The building has an arched profile, with two, curved facades and flat ends creating a distinctive shape that resembles the shape of tins of ham – from which it gets its nickname.
70 St Mary Axe’s unusual form was the result of Foggo Associates wanting to reduce the building’s footprint at street level, while creating standard-shaped floors for use as offices.
“We wanted to give back space to the public realm around the base of the building and for the building to appear less sheer on the principal elevations on Bevis Marks and Houndsditch,” explained Warrender.
“There is a misconception that the building is a funny shape and therefore must have odd shaped floorplates, when in fact, the scheme is a classic central core building where every floor is a perfect rectangle, albeit of varying sizes.”
Source: Dezeen
Pictures by James Reid
