The Shard's construction began in March 2009; it was topped out on 30 March 2012
[18] and inaugurated on 6 July 2012.
[19] Practical completion was achieved in November 2012. The tower's privately operated observation deck,
the View from the Shard, was opened to the public on 1 February 2013.
[1][20][21] The glass-clad
pyramidal tower has 72 habitable floors, with a
viewing gallery and open-air observation deck on the 72nd floor, at a height of 244.3 metres (802 ft).
[4][22] It was designed by the Italian architect
Renzo Pianoand replaced
Southwark Towers, a 24-storey office block built on the site in 1975. The Shard was developed by
Sellar Property Group on behalf of LBQ Ltd, and is jointly owned by Sellar Property and the
State of Qatar.
[6]
QATAR'S ENTRY ON BOARD:
Some challenging years followed, during which the project overcame a lengthy planning process and a high-profile public inquiry, only for investment to slip away following the global economic crash. But The Shard’s future was assured in 2008 when the State of Qatar came on board as a partner who shared Sellar’s vision. The construction phase was exhilarating and testing in equal measure. The team overcame sub-zero temperatures, gale force winds and the Thames breaking through the protective dam.
Pioneering engineering methods were used, such as top-down construction, where foundations are dug while the core is built up – a first for the UK. Over one 36-hour period – employing 700 lorry-loads, one every three minutes – the team poured 5,400 cubic metres of concrete. The years of hard work and ingenuity came to fruition in 2012, when The Shard was completed and officially opened by the Prime Minister of Qatar. Since then, its restaurants, hotel and viewing gallery have opened to the public and tenants have begun to move into its offices.
Architecture[edit]
Internal structure of the Shard's spire and radiator floors, seen from the 72nd-floor observatory
Renzo Piano, the project's architect, designed The Shard as a spire-like sculpture emerging from the
River Thames.
[23] He was inspired by the railway lines next to the site, the London
spires depicted by the 18th-century
Venetian painter
Canaletto, and the
masts of sailing ships.
[14] Piano's design met criticism from English Heritage, who claimed the building would be "a shard of glass through the heart of historic London", giving the building its name, the Shard.
[34] Piano considered the slender, spire-like form of the tower a positive addition to the London skyline, recalling the church steeples featured in historic engravings of the city, and believed that its presence would be far more delicate than opponents of the project alleged. He proposed a sophisticated use of
glazing, with expressive façades of angled glass panes intended to reflect sunlight and the sky above, so that the appearance of the building will change according to the weather and seasons.
[35] The building features 11,000 panes of glass, with a total surface area of 56,000 square metres (600,000 sq ft).
[36]
The Shard was designed with energy efficiency in mind. It is fitted with a
combined heat and power (CHP) plant, operating on natural gas from the
National Grid. Fuel is efficiently converted to electricity and heat is recovered from the engine to provide hot water for the building.
[37]
In 2014, The Shard claimed first place at the
Emporis Skyscraper Awards, recognising buildings over 100 m (328 ft) completed in the previous twelve months. The Emporis judges hailed the building as "a skyscraper that is recognized immediately and which is already considered London's new emblem".
[40]
| Floors | Floor area | Space designation |
|---|
| 73–95 | | Spire |
|---|
| 68–72 | 758 m2 (8,159 sq ft) | The View from The Shard (observatory) |
|---|
| 53–65 | 5,772 m2 (62,129 sq ft) | Residences |
|---|
| 34–52 | | Shangri-La Hotel |
|---|
| 31–33 | 5,945 m2 (63,991 sq ft) | Restaurants (Hutong, Oblix and Aqua Shard) |
|---|
| 28 | | South Hook Gas |
|---|
| 27 | | Arma Partners |
|---|
| 26 | 52,322 m2 (563,189 sq ft) | Offices |
|---|
| 24–25 | | The Office Group |
|---|
| 19–23 | 52,322 m2 (563,189 sq ft) | Offices |
|---|
| 18 | | Gallup |
|---|
| 17 | | Warwick Business School and Foresight |
|---|
| 16 | | Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera UK London studio and offices |
|---|
| 15 | | Mathys & Squire |
|---|
| 14 | | Duff & Phelps |
|---|
| 10–13 | 54,488 m2 (586,504 sq ft) | Offices including Robert Half and Protiviti |
|---|
| 9 | | IO Oil and Gas |
|---|
| 8 | 54,488 m2 (586,504 sq ft) | Offices |
|---|
| 5–7 | 54,488 m2 (586,504 sq ft) | Clinic (HCA Healthcare at the Shard)[41] |
|---|
| 3–4 | 54,488 m2 (586,504 sq ft) | Offices |
|---|
| 1–2 | 6,036 m2 (64,971 sq ft) | Retail and office reception |
|---|
| Ground | | Hotel, restaurant and observatory entrances |
|---|
Sources: The-Shard.com
[42] and The-Shard.com
[43] and Billionpoints.de.
[44]
Construction[edit]
In February 2009, a mobile crane and a small piling rig appeared on site. In early March 2009, the crane began putting steel beams into the ground, as part of preparations for the core of the building. Full construction began on 16 March 2009. Demolition work on New London Bridge House started in May 2009, as part of the concurrent London Bridge Place project. The first steelwork went into The Shard's piles on 28 April.
[45] Five cranes were used to build The Shard, with four of them 'jumping' with the tower as it rose. Crane 1 was erected in September 2009 and Crane 2 was erected at the beginning of October.
[46] By 20 October 2009, steel beams began appearing on site, with concrete being poured at the northern part of the site, ready for Crane 3.
By March 2010, the concrete core was rising steadily at about 3 metres (9.8 ft) a day.
[47] After a pause in March–April 2010, it continued rising, reaching the 33rd floor in mid-June, almost level with the top of
Guy's Hospital, which stands at 143 metres (469 ft). On 27 July 2010, the core stopped rising, having reached the 38th floor, and was reconfigured for further construction.
[48] By mid-November 2010, the core had reached the 68th floor, with the tower's steel reaching the 40th floor and glass cladding enveloping a third of the building. In late November, the core's height exceeded 235 metres (771 ft), ending
One Canada Square's 18-year reign as Britain's tallest building.
[49]
The Shard's concrete core topped out at the 72nd floor in early 2011, standing at 245 metres (804 ft). The early part of January 2011 saw the installation of hydraulic screens, which were used to form the concrete floors of the hotel and apartment section of the tower, and rose with the floors up to the 69th floor. On 25 January 2011, the concrete pumps began pouring the first concrete floor at the 41st floor. By the end of February 2011, concrete flooring had risen to the 46th floor, with a new floor being poured on average every week. The cladding of the structure also progressed, mainly on the tower's "backpack".
The inauguration of The Shard on 5 July 2012
August 2011 saw steady progress in construction, with cladding enveloping more than half the building's exterior. Pouring of the concrete floors reached the 67th floor, and progression on the tower's cladding reached the 58th floor. By mid-August, the core box had been removed. By 19 September 2011, the tower's steel was approaching the height of the completed core, reaching almost 244 metres (801 ft).
[50] On 24 September, a final crane – at the time, the tallest ever built in Britain – was erected to install the skyscraper's upper spire.
[51] The spire was pre-fabricated and pre-assembled based upon 3D models, and underwent a "test run" in
Yorkshire before being lifted onto the building itself.
[52] By late December 2011, The Shard had become
the tallest building in the European Union, superseding the
Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt, Germany.
[53]
The Shard's steel structure was topped out on 30 March 2012, when its 66-metre (217 ft), 500-tonne spire was winched into place.
[54][55]The steel structure thus reached a height of 308.5 metres (1,012 ft). The final 516 panes of glass were added shortly after, topping the tower out at its full height of 309.6768 metres (1,016.000 ft).
[56]
CREDITS & SOURCES:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shard
http://www.the-shard.com/shard/the-vision/
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