Dillinger heavy plate for the
Tower “22” at Bishopsgate
Dillinger steel lets office workers climb on windows…
In the Middle Ages, Bishopsgate was one of the eight city gates of London. Today, it comprises a group of skyscrapers that dominate the skyline of London. Now, at the number 22, the newest tower has emerged. In contrast to its neighbours, the “Gherkin”, the “Cheesegrater” and the “Walkie Talkie”, it has not yet got an unusual nickname. In an earlier design it was called “Pinnacle”, but the current developer soberly named it “Twentytwo” after its house number.
At 278 m (912 ft), however, the new 62-storey glass-clad skyscraper is currently the tallest building in the City of London, so that it visually dominates the skyline of London’s banking district.
A “vertical village” in a host of innovations
Described by its developers as Europe’s first vertical village, the mixed-used building accommodates up to 12,000 people. Thus, in its 120,000 m², it houses offices, apartments, a fresh food market, restaurants, bars, cafés, a conference center, a medical center, a library, a wellness suite, sports facilities, bicycle facilities, as well as training, laundry and drying facilities and the London’s highest free public viewing gallery.
One innovation chases the next …
The tower owes its aerodynamic shape to the cooperation with engineers from Formula 1. Thus, large-scale spoilers, similar to those on the back of a race car, made out of steel and glass, have been mounted to tamp down the wind flow.
The building’s sustainable and energy-efficient glass façade has been refined to allow 60 percent more light to pass through, while each office unit has even been assigned its own IP address so that people in the unit can intelligently change the blinds using a building-specific application.
The skyscraper is also one of the first in the world to use biometric security with face recognition at the entrance.
Traffic flows around the building have been reduced thanks to innovative logistics solutions (1,700 bicycle stands, numerical delivery management system).
Another unique feature of the facility is the world’s first climbing wall on the glazed façade at a height of 125 m. Located on the 25th floor, this attraction has won the title of the highest climbing wall in Great Britain!
Dillinger supplied more than 3,700 t of heavy plate in the qualities S355NL, S355K2+N, S355J2+N, S355J0+N, S460N, S460NL in thicknesses between 10 and 100 mm for the steel-framed superstructure of this future-oriented building.
