The Shard

The Shard, and Shard London Bridge (formerly London Bridge Tower, also Shard of Glass, from English shard, shard ',' splinter '), is a skyscraper in London Borough of Southwark, the 310 meters from July to October 2012, the tallest building Europe was and currently is the EU's tallest building. The delayed start of construction took place on 16 March 2009, the inauguration was on 1 February 2013. The final height of 310 meters was reached on 30 March 2012 by placing a steel tip as the last component.

Prehistory

In the early 1990s, there were plans for a new skyscraper in London's Southwark on the south bank of the Thames. The original design called for a 400-meter high skyscraper in front of a cylindrical form, which should be the third tallest skyscraper in the world. The draft came, however, in public and with the competent authorities with little enthusiasm. Finally, the architect Renzo Piano was commissioned with a new design. This is now provided for a 310 -meter-high pyramid- shaped building. During the planning there were protests from critics who argued that such a building opposite the City would harm the city.

End of 2003, the authorities issued the building permit. In the summer of 2004 began with the demolition of the first on-site facilities building. Surprisingly, however, there were a few months later problems when buying other necessary construction areas, as an owner refused to sell. In July 2005, an agreement was finally reached, so that the remaining buildings were demolished in the course of 2006. Because of this delay, the date for the start of construction from May 2005 to early 2007 had to be postponed. Further delays were caused by jumping off of all investors due to the global financial crisis and delayed the start of construction on March 2009 and completion in May 2012. The outer structure was the beginning of April 2012 completed. The opening of the Shard was held on July 5, 2012 held the view terrace is since February 1, 2013 available for public inspection, the hotel is scheduled to open in 2013.

Construction

The Shard has 72 usable floors and is 310 meters high. He was thus the meantime tallest skyscraper of the European continent before the beginning of November 2012, the Mercury City Tower ( 338 meters) was inaugurated. The Shard had the Moscow Capital City Tower surmounted by about 10 meters and the Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt am Main by more than 50 meters when it is completed.

The 11,000 slices fully glazed building is built pyramid-shaped and runs towards the tip to narrow. The surface of the glass façade is 56,000 m². The building is designed for the following use:

Equipped with plants Shard Plaza on the ground floor provides seating. In addition there is a 460 square meter area with shops and direct access to the waiting hall at London Bridge Station, one of London's major train stations.

Above the 72nd floor at 244 meters above sea level, the Spire is (English for spire ) with technical equipment such as the air conditioning, which are not accessible to the public. 6 of the 15 floors of the tip are potentially usable. The Spire was constructed from 800 individual steel parts, weighs about 500 tons, is 66 meters high and was drawn up by the largest crane in Britain.

In total there are 44 high-rise elevators and 306 stairs.