Architect Ken Shuttleworth has labelled the Shard an unsustainable 鈥済reenhouse鈥�

One of the lead designers behind London鈥檚 iconic Gherkin tower Ken Shuttleworth has labelled the Shard an unsustainable 鈥済reenhouse鈥�.

Shuttleworth 鈥� who has repeatedly claimed he would like the Gherkin to be designed differently to make it more sustainable if given the chance today 鈥� told the Ecobuild conference he didn鈥檛 think the Shard could stack up environmentally.

Shuttleworth said: 鈥淭here will always be a desire to build tall, but we have a duty to make the next set of towers more energy efficient than before.鈥�

He added: 鈥淎rchitects didn鈥檛 design with energy in mind in the 70s and 80s because it was so cheap but we now have to tackle energy efficiency.鈥�

Dr Richard Mawer, a structural engineer at WSP who is on the Shard project team, came to the building鈥檚 defence.

He said the building had been awarded a BREEAM rating of 鈥榚xcellent鈥� and had automatic blinds on every window to mitigate solar heat gain.

He added that unlike many London buildings its high quality design was built to last. 鈥淚t鈥檚 sustainable in that you don鈥檛 need to build it twice.鈥�

Topics