The Shard
by Joe Schofield
Title
The Shard
Artist
Joe Schofield
Medium
Photograph
Description
Taking inspiration from the spires of London churches and the masts of tall ships depicted by the 18th-century Venetian painter Canaletto, Renzo Piano designed The Shard as a spire-like sculpture emerging from the River Thames.
The slender pyramidal form was tuned to the mix of uses that the building contains; offices making use of the large floor plates on levels 4-28, and directly connected to the busy transport hub at ground level. Immediately above are three floors of restaurants and bars. The hotel occupies the central section of the building, with the residences above, where the building is slender enough for apartments to have views on all sides. The final floors accommodate the UK's highest public viewing galleries, 240m above street level. The spectacular glass and steel spire at 95 storeys (310m) high forms its summit, tapering off and disappearing into the sky - a particularly important detail for Piano given the building’s prominence on the London skyline.
Eight sloping glass facades, the "shards", define the shape and visual quality of the tower, fragmenting the scale of the building and reflecting the light in unpredictable ways. Opening vents in the gaps or “fractures” between the shards, provide natural ventilation to winter gardens.
Uploaded
October 19th, 2017
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Viewed 2,835 Times - Last Visitor from Wilmington, DE on 04/18/2024 at 3:20 PM
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Comments (30)
Steve Henderson
My eye travels up, up, up into the clouds above. I love the way the clouds are reflected in the glass.
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