The CF Lunoe Trust Lecture: Engineering the Shard

At 306m above ground level, the Shard is the tallest building in Western Europe.

It was designed by structural engineers WSP and architects Renzo Piano Building Workshop for client Sellar Properties. The mixed-use building – a ‘vertical city’ – comprises 28 storeys of offices, 12 floors of apartments, 6 levels of restaurants and an 18 storey hotel. At the top is a 60m tall steel and glass spire, containing a public viewing gallery offering 360° views of London. The Shard is a sharp and light presence on the London skyline, welcoming more than 8,000 workers, residents and hotel guests a day and more than 2 million public visitors a year.

The lecture, Engineering The Shard, took place on 13 November 2014 in the School of Civil Engineering. It was delivered by John Parker, Senior Technical Director in the WSP London structures team, and Project Director for the civil, structural and geotechnical design of the Shard.

For a number of years the CF Lunoe Charitable Trust has sponsored an annual lecture hosted by the School of Civil Engineering. This year’s lecture was attended by an audience of some 275 people made up of students and staff from within the School and members of the local Institutions of Civil and Structural Engineers.