A mix of uses – residential, offices and retail – creates a building that is in use 24 hours
a day. The slender, pyramidal form of the tower was determined by its suitability to
this mix: large floor plates at the bottom for offices; restaurants, public spaces and a
hotel located in the middle; private apartments at the top of the building. The final
floors accommodate a public viewing gallery, 240 m above street level. This arrangement
of functions also allows the tower to taper off and disappear into the sky, a particularly
important detail for RPBW 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.
The extra-white glass used on the Shard gives the tower a lightness and a sensitivity
to the changing sky around it, the Shard’s colour and mood are constantly changing.
It required a particular technical solution to ensure the facade’s performance in terms
of controlling light and heat. A double-skin, naturally ventilated facade with internal
blinds that respond automatically to changes in light levels was developed. The logic is
very simple: external blinds are very effective in keeping solar gain out of a building,
but unprotected external blinds are not appropriate for a tall building, hence the extra
layer of glass facade on the outside.
As part of the project, a section of London Bridge Station’s concourse was also redeveloped
and the London Bridge Tower has been the stimulus for much of the regeneration
of the surrounding area, now known as the London Bridge quarter.