Fenchurch Street - Canopy

A glass canopy with a size of 27 × 6 m is part of the '20 Fenchurch Street ' complex designed by Rafael Vinoly. Transparency and lightness dominate the design of the roof and the entire entrance area of the northern main entrance.
The structure is composed of ten glass fins cantilevering about 5 m and consisting of five-ply laminated safety glass. The glass fins are supported by, and connected to, a massive stainless steel hollow-section by stainless steel shoes without any visible mechanical fixings. Four massive brackets fabricated from duplex-steel with plate thicknesses of up to 60 mm and a weight of about 0,5 tons each, penetrate the vertical façade of the building, thus connecting the stainless steel hollow-section of the canopy to the vertical columns of the primary structure of the main building. Nine horizontal large-scale four-ply laminated safety glass panels, each measuring 5 × 3m, cover the area below the canopy and provide lateral stiffness to the glass fins. The horizontal roof panels are slightly sloped from the tip of the structure allowing for drainage into the gutter located on top of the stainless steel hollow section. During the design phase, a special focus was placed on the development of the connection details – without involving mechanical fixings - between the glass fins and the horizontal roof glazing.