The Shard wins Emporis Skyscraper Award

The Shard, was chosen by an international panel of experts from more than 300 skyscrapers of at least 100 meters' height and which were completed during the previous calendar year, for the prestigious The Emporis Skyscraper Award.

The award, given by Emporis (www.emporis.com), the international provider of building data, is now into its fourteenth year.

The 306-meter-tall winning building, designed by the architect Renzo Piano, won over the jury thanks to its unique glass fragment-shaped form and its sophisticated architectural implementation. "Construction of The Shard was complicated by the particularly tight site and therefore needed innovative planning.

This makes the result all the more impressive: a skyscraper that is recognized immediately and which is already considered London's new emblem," stated the expert jury in explaining its decision.

Second place in the voting went to DC Tower 1 by Dominique Perrault Architecture. The 250-meter-tall Viennese skyscraper particularly stands out for the contrasting way in which its facade is treated: Three mirror-smooth sides are broken by a craggy, jagged fourth that gives the building a strength of expression and sense of solidity, despite its slim stature.

The skyscraper also impressed due to its comprehensive sustainability concept, including photovoltaics to generate energy, local plants with low water requirements in the green areas of the building, and electric car chargers to save on CO2 emissions.

The third-placed project also breaks with the standards of conventional high-rise architecture and thus adds to the great variety of forms and shapes that characterizes this year's Emporis Skyscraper Award. Located on Lake Tai, the Sheraton Huzhou Hot Spring Resort, conceived by last year's winning architects MAD, is a 102-meter-tall hotel whose shape evokes a gigantic ring. Its daring design is further accentuated by its illumination at night, which creates imposing reflections of the building in the lake.