20 Fenchurch Street

20 Fenchurch Street – aka The Walkie Talkie – made an instant impact on the London skyline when it opened in 2014.

The building provides 34 floors of office space in the heart of the City of London’s financial district. At the top of the 160m tower is The Sky Garden, which offers panoramic 360-degree views and is the highest public garden in the city.

Brand: Gartner, Permasteelisa

Architect: Rafael Viñoly Architects

Developer: Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group

Contractor: Canary Wharf Contractors

The project

The concept

The building’s distinctive design flares out from a narrow base to a wide, curved roof, said to resemble the shape of a walkie-talkie. The Sky Garden at the top of the tower includes gardens, an open-air terrace and two restaurants.

What did we do?

For the cladding of the tower we designed, manufactured, engineered and installed 28,000 sqm of high-quality, geometrically complex unitised curtain wall. For the south elevation, we also supplied 8,000 sunshades, each with a slightly different size and geometry.

The Sky Garden is supported by 34 structural steel arches, made of almost 1,000 tons of steel, clad with around 4,500 sqm of double glazed units. On the east and west sides of the building vertical louvres follow its curved form and also frame the Sky Garden.