Work is well underway for London's glass 'Shard', designed by Renzo Piano, one of the most respected of living designers and chief architect for the Qatari-backed development.

Having shot shot to international prominence in 1977 when, together with Richard Rogers, he designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris he has since gone on to deliver a sequence of highly acclaimed buildings around the world, notably the Kansai International Airport terminal, built on an artificial island in Osaka Bay, Japan and, at 1.7km long, one of the largest buildings ever constructed - and the masterplanning of Potsdamer Platz in Berlin - the symbolic new heart of the reunified German capital.
Indeed, having initially come up with the the concept and the dramatic form of the Shard in a few seconds (reportedly, on the back of a restaurant menu in Berlin itself), the Shard will be a tower like no other, both architecturally breathtaking and technologically advanced.

"The shape of the tower is generous at the bottom and narrow at the top, disappearing in the air like a 16th century pinnacle or the mast top of a very tall ship. The architecture of The Shard is firmly based in the historic form of London’s masts and spires".

"The tower is designed to be a sharp and light presence on the London skyline, and to be sustainable from every point of view: human, technological, energetic and economic".

"I foresee the London Bridge Quarter as a vertical city, for thousands of people to work in and enjoy, for hundreds of thousands more to commute to from all over the region, and for millions to take to their hearts".
- Renzo Piano

Follow the project at: www.shardlondonbridge.com (and download the excellent brochure pdf for more insights and interviews with Piano)

Together with Chelsea Barracks and One Hyde Park, Qatar certainly seems determined to provide a counterbalance to the turbo-charged skyline of Dubai with the latest property masterplan. Set atop London Bridge station and with not a car park in sight, Piano's utopian vision of a mixed-use vertical 'city' looks stunning and has the right environmental credentials too.

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