A new London skyscraper nicknamed 'the erotic gherkin' has won one of Britain's top architecture prizes.
This is what it looks like - click here
The 40-storey Swiss Re Tower in London's financial district was designed by British architect Norman Foster.
The popular cigar-shaped glass structure, which has also been dubbed 'the towering innuendo', has won the Royal Institute of British Architects' Stirling Prize.
The circular glass-panelled tower, rising to a pointed tip, acquired the "gherkin" nickname well before it was finished.
A RIBA spokesman said: "This 40-storey tapering building is already a popular icon on the city skyline, so the jury tended to concentrate upon the degree to which this iconic object did in fact provide a pay-off in terms of facility, ambience and interpretation of the basic mathematics of the project."
The prize honours the best new building or project in Britain or by a British architect anywhere in the European Union.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1221630.htm
This is what it looks like - click here
The 40-storey Swiss Re Tower in London's financial district was designed by British architect Norman Foster.
The popular cigar-shaped glass structure, which has also been dubbed 'the towering innuendo', has won the Royal Institute of British Architects' Stirling Prize.
The circular glass-panelled tower, rising to a pointed tip, acquired the "gherkin" nickname well before it was finished.
A RIBA spokesman said: "This 40-storey tapering building is already a popular icon on the city skyline, so the jury tended to concentrate upon the degree to which this iconic object did in fact provide a pay-off in terms of facility, ambience and interpretation of the basic mathematics of the project."
The prize honours the best new building or project in Britain or by a British architect anywhere in the European Union.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1221630.htm
