What is the architectural style of the Shard?
Modern architecture
Neo-futurism
The Shard/Architectural styles
What does the Shard represent?
The Shard has become a symbol of London – a landmark of modern architecture in a contemporary capital. Its cutting-edge design resembling a glass shard reflects London’s skyline on its exterior and changes colour depending on the weather and the seasons.
What was the purpose of building the Shard?
The Shard was conceived as a building with multiple uses: a vertical city where people could live, work and relax. It comprises world-class offices, award-winning restaurants, the 5-star Shangri-La Hotel, exclusive residences and the UK’s highest viewing gallery, The View from The Shard, offering 360-degree views.
What features make the Shard building sustainable?
The design of the building is environmentally-friendly: a staggering 95% of construction materials used were recycled. The Shard’s energy efficiency is boosted thanks to triple-glazed glass, with a layer of sun shielding glass sandwiched between the inner and outer sheets.
How was The Shard constructed?
The tower is effectively three separate structures – a steel-frame building for the first 40 floors, a post-tension concrete frame up to level 72, then a steel spire to complete the shape to the equivalent of level 95. The use of concrete in the centre of the building had a number of benefits.
When did Renzo Piano design The Shard?
Renzo Piano’s original sketch for the Shard. “This thing came very quickly,” architect Renzo Piano has recalled of his first thoughts about the building that would become the Shard, in central London. Piano apparently sketched his idea on a restaurant napkin while meeting property developer Irvine Sellar in March 2000.
What materials were used in The Shard?
The Shard is an unusual mixture of concrete and steel, a tiered wedding cake of a building with a concrete basement, structural steel from ground to level 40, concrete from levels 41 to 69, and steel again from there to the top at level 95.
How was The Shard designed?
The architect Renzo Piano wanted The Shard to resemble a church spire, inspired by a painting of London by 18th-century Venetian painter Canaletto as well as the masts of sailing ships. The design was also in part influenced by the railway tracks that would be running around the building.
How is The Shard sustainable?
The tower is estimated to require 30 percent less energy than typical tall buildings and received a rating of ‘Excellent’ on the BREEAM sustainability assessment, with 95 percent of its construction materials coming from recycled sources, along with 20 percent of the steelwork.
How deep is the foundation of The Shard?
53m deep
Foundation construction began with the sinking of bored piles, 1.5m and 1.8m in diameter, up to 53m deep.
What materials is The Shard made of?
The Shard is a building of concrete, steel and glass. The tapered pyramid that crowns the top of the building has a square base of steel weighing 500 tonnes, equivalent to 15 stories high, the last 15, and is made of 800 pieces of steel.
What type of foundation does The Shard have?
The three basement levels are concrete frame, ground to level 40 is steel frame, levels 41-69 concrete frame (lower levels post-tensioned), and the rest of spire steel frame. The reinforced concrete core extends to level 72.