"I foresee the tower as a small vertical town for about seven thousand people to work in and enjoy and for hundreds of thousands more to visit from all over the world."
This is why we have included shops, offices, restaurants, and residential spaces. The shape of the tower is generous at the bottom without arrogantly touching the ground, and narrow at the top, disappearing in the air like a 16th century pinnacle or the mast top of a very tall ship.
I don't believe it is possible to build a tall building in London by extruding the same shape from bottom to top. It would be too small at the bottom and too big at the top.
Symbols are dangerous, and tall buildings are often aggressive and arrogant symbols of power and ego, selfish and hermetic. The Shard is designed to be a sharp and light presence in the London skyline. Architecure is about telling stories and expressing visions, and memory is part of it. This is why the architecture of The Shard is firmly based in the historic form of London’s masts and towers.
