The i360 tower in Brighton has been declared the thinnest building in the world, with a diameter of 12.7ft (3.9m), winning a place in the Guinness World Records as the “most slender tower”.
The structure stands at 531ft (162m) high, with a height to width ratio of 41.15-to-one, beating The Shard and BT Tower in London. The Shard has an aspect ratio of six to one and the BT Tower in London had an aspect ratio of eight-to-one.
The pod is made of 24 segments of handmade glass, and will give visitors views of up to 26 miles along the Sussex coast, from Bexhill to Chichester. The pod will hold up to 200 people.
The tower was designed by Marks Barfield Architects — the team behind the London Eye.
John Roberts, Chief engineer and Director of the British Airways i360 said that the tower had used “groundbreaking engineering”. He said that they did not set out to achieve a world record, they just wanted to build a very slender tower.
Mr Roberts said people might think the main challenge was carrying the weight of the 94-tonne pod with 200 passengers on board weighing about 16 tonnes but commented:
– Amazingly, that’s not really the problem of designing the tower. The tower is all about one thing — making it stand up safely in extremely strong winds.
– There’s absolutely no way this tower is going to fall over”.
Storm Imogen recently brought winds of up to 75mph to Brighton Beach, and the tower can withstand wind speeds of more than 100mph.
Developers hope the tower will attract at least 700,000 visitors per year, making it the city’s most popular paid-for attraction.
