Seen from the inside looking outwards, we see one of the giant 38 ton 'torso nodes' of Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 roof structure. Developed by Arup to design the geometry of abutment steel, this engineering challenge needed to help support 50 ton rafters to made T5 the largest free-standing building in the UK. In the centre is the torso that sits on top of two feet with the wings splaying out to the window. The main architecture was created by the Richard Rogers Partnership (now Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners) and opened in 2008 after a cost of £4.3 billion. Terminal 5 has the capacity to serve around 30 million passengers a year. From writer Alain de Botton's book project "A Week at the Airport: A Heathrow Diary" (2009). .
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