THE SHARD-LONDON
THE SHARD-LONDON
City
London, UK
Architect
Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Stone type
Cremo Delicato, Verde Marina
The Shard: Renzo Piano.
Standing 309.6 metres (1,016 feet) high, the Shard, also referred to as the Shard of Glass, is the tallest building in the United Kingdom, and the seventh-tallest building in Europe designed by the Italian architect Renzo Piano. It replaced Southwark Towers, a 24-storey office block built on the site in 1975.
The pyramid shape, as the architect Renzo Piano states, refers to past visions, such as the masts of the ships moored in the nearby Pool of London and the spiral spiers of Christopher Wren’s churches.
The Shard, the “Splinter” of crystal thrown against the sky, is the centerpiece of the redevelopment of the neighborhood around London Bridge Station, the nerve center of London transport where 200,000 people pass through trains, buses and subways a day.
The challenge Savema faced was to transform raw blocks from the quarry into the highest technical and aesthetic products, ready for cladding the walls of such a masterpiece.
