UKC

I've just seen a photo of the `Climbing Window' in the new tallest building in the City of London - 22 Bishopgate. Presume its for er...bouldering, rather than climbing (as who'd want to slam into glass that many storeys up, however thick the glass is), but is it anything more than a sales gimmick? Would you use it in your `lunch hour' (presuming you ever go back `to the office')? 

Old school dragons.

Weapon.

Google or similar, must be providing us with the same links!

Saw this as well today when browsing. Total gimmick but when's that ever stopped an architect from coming up with shit climbing related ideas... 

TBH I'd rather have a "normal" gym with shower facilities (available to all, so runners can use them too) than something like that.

I think it might be wise to reflect on this.

That looks like some weird photoshop image...

Pretty certain it is. It seems to be a fairly old picture before it was built and there dont seem to be any recent photos despite the building apparently being mostly complete.

I wonder if the architects cool idea met reality and they are just getting a basic wall instead/

That looks like an image of a wall with physical volumes blended over an image of some glass windows.

The main climbing issue would be lack of friction on the glass I should think, changes the nature of the routes significantly, greatly reducing the range of possible climbs.

The main aesthetic issue would be that the glass would almost instant become utterly filthy and almost impossible to clean with all the irregular holds it.

The main construction issue would be what the hell kind of a glue will bond standard climbing holds to glass with sufficient shear resistance, let alone whilst allowing for holds to be seamlessly removed. It’s also going to need very heavy duty glass and mountings.

That shouldn't be a problem, plenty of commercial walls have no friction paint.

Yep... eek.

I'd imagine it would be M10 threaded inserts in pre-drilled holes and epoxied. I'd imagine the glass would be *thick*.

Or just use a lattice type climbing wall so that it is independent of the glass but still has a good view/feeling of height, etc.

The thing that is distressing me the most is the climbers body position makes absolutely no sense especially as there’s no way those holds are anything other than enormous jugs

Probably real. I see this sort of crap all the time working as an engineer in construciton.

Its probably a plastic wall that is fitted in front of the external curtain walling system.

You would never factor in a climbing wall when designing for thermal, acoustic and air tight properties.

I kind of like it to be fair. I'd definitely want to have a go at least.

The image is just a photoshopped climbing wall over a window view of the space. 

As for the actual construction, it will most likely be perspex, as actual glass would be hellishly expensive if its even possible to develop some strong enough to be peppered with holes and take the loads required for the standards. 

Perspex, on the other hand, definitely works