Summary
The Shard - one of the dominant features of the London skyline - opened to the public in February 2013. Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the skyscraper divided public opinion: it features tall, fractured slivers of glass rising in a pyramid-like shape to a jagged spire. The Shard is also home to London's highest viewing gallery. Reena Stanton-Sharma talks to engineer, Roma Agrawal, who helped build the Shard.
PHOTO: The Shard towering over South London (Getty Images)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:37.0 | BBC World Service, a now Witness History with me, |
| 0:44.7 | Rina Stanton Sharma. |
| 0:46.7 | Today we're continuing our week of programs on architecture around the world. |
| 0:51.6 | I'm bringing you the story of one of the buildings that |
| 0:53.9 | dominates the London skyline, the shard. I spoke to engineer Roma Agrawal about |
| 0:59.6 | building one of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe. |
| 1:05.0 | In February 2013, Boris Johnson, then the Mayor of London, |
| 1:11.0 | opened the shard to the public. |
| 1:13.0 | I have great pleasure therefore in declaring this stupendous the highest viewing platform in Europe, |
| 1:21.0 | if not the world, open. |
| 1:22.0 | Thank you. |
| 1:24.0 | The shard, it now dominates the London skyline. |
| 1:27.8 | The 11,000 panes of glass have come from Germany, the architect is Italian, the money to bankroll the shard has come from |
| 1:34.3 | Qatar, the architect is Italian, the money to bankroll the shard has come from Qatar. |
| 1:35.2 | The people who actually built it some at more than a thousand feet up in the end |
| 1:39.0 | were British. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.