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.

We like it, what about you?

Straight out of Asimov, architects at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) have a plan to build a massive digital cloud structure above London's skyline.

The Cloud, which has been shortlisted in a competition to build a tourist attraction in the Olympic Park with a lasting legacy, would feature 400 foot-tall mesh towers topped with solar powered plastic bubbles that show images, data and highlights including a "barometer of the city's interests and moods" outside (that latter bit comes courtesy of the group's partnership with Google).

As if that wasn't enough, the whole thing also promises to be funded entirely by micro-payments from the public (which would also determine its final size), and be completely self-powered as ramps, stairs, and lifts carry tourists to the top of the cloud. Once inside the structure, viewers would have a sweeping view of the city below. Despite displaying a constant stream of data, the cloud wouldn't take any power from the grid. Instead, it could generate all its own energy from a regenerative braking system and solar cells located on the ground and in the plastic spheres.

Even if the Cloud isn't chosen as the winner in the city's competition, the MIT designers are determined to build it. To that end, they have launched a fund-raising website in the hopes that millions of people will provide small donations. Want to help make the Cloud a reality? Check out the site at www.raisethecloud.org