Why Singapore's "Durian" Is Covered in 7,000 Spikes

Singaporeans call it the Durian, after the spiky fruit it looks like. It is wrapped in more than 7,000 triangular aluminium spikes - and from a distance they look like decoration. They are not. They are the reason a glass building sitting almost exactly on the equator does not turn into an oven. This is the Esplanade, Singapore's national arts centre, and its spikes are a precise map of the sun. We cover why glass on the equator is a greenhouse trap, why the architects refused to give up the g