Shard Tower Characteristics

Symbolic Aspect

Ÿ The shard, regarding to its form and transparent façade, is the best metaphor to showing Modern London.

Ÿ Transparency is a sign of Modernity

Ÿ The shard tower, as an icon for London

Ÿ Deliberated design

Ÿ This building is unique in the case of architecture

Ÿ Importance of form

Ÿ High-rise buildings are frequently aggressive and overconfident symbols of ego and power, hermetic and selfish (Douglas, 2011) .

Ÿ “The Shard is a timeless reminder of the power of imagination to inspire change. It is symbol of city’s regeneration” (Douglas, 2011) .

Ÿ Important role of form to create and define symbolic meaning

Ÿ The Shard, also referred to as the “Shard of Glass”, even its name is inspired from the shape and form of the tower

o “The shard of glass”, its nickname was originally chosen by English Heritage department; and its intention was to insult the building because the Shard Tower was thought as a knife stabbed the historic London’s heart―“a shard of glass through the heart of historic London” (Sellar, 2012) .

Ÿ Importance of form

Ÿ Form of the tower is similar to the 16^th century pinnacle.

o As Renzo piano claims, the tower has a generous shape at the bottom and it is narrow on top. It is disappearing in the air like pinnacles of the 16th century or like a pole on top of a tall ship. Architecture of the shard tightly based on the form of London’s historic poles and spires (Figure 7) and (Figure 8) (Douglas, 2011) .

o Based on past experiences; refer to something from the past with our origin, tradition and history

o Referring to a universal pattern

Ÿ Resembling an entirely glass pyramid

o The Shard is similar to the form of an obelisk (Figure 9). It is likely to a sharply and steeply angled; and delicately stepped pyramid. It is a completing part for the irregular nature of its site. Each part of its façade is a glass flake, tending inwards and rising above, which resembles a complete glass pyramid. It is jutting to the sky same as wedge made of glass with sharp contours (Knöfe, 2012) .

o inspiration of universal subject, also it is based on past experiences

o Each skyscraper serves as a symbol. This glass tower is intending to show that London is able to confront the financial crisis.

o Hal Foster who is professor of art at Princeton and author of The Art-Architecture Complex, he gave different imputation to this tower; he claims that “If the Shard is a symbol of anything it’ a symbol of finance capitalism” (Sellar, 2012) .

Ÿ key structural and idea behind the concept

Ÿ “The glass wedge will simply become a symbol of the fact that everything in London is growing fancier and more expensive, and that it’ time for old England” (Knöfe, 2012) .

Ÿ inspiration from the form of the building and user’s view points