Name
of project
Swiss Re Headquarters
London
England
1997 - 2004
![Click here to view full size image](webbackground/images/sponge/spongebig3.jpg")
a distinctive addition to the City of London skyline. The 40-storey tower is, says the architect, 'the capital's first environmentally progressive tall building'. The unusual form is both a consequence and a symbol of this fact.
The building's shape, structure and ventilation scheme all find a parallel in the class of sea creatures known as glass sponges. These have delicate, elongated exoskeletons. They filter nutrients from water they suck in at their base and expel from a hole at the top, just as Foster's tower circulates air.