The Tallest Skyscraper In Western Europe

"British developer Irvine Sellar and Italian architect Renzo Piano are building the tallest building in Western Europe, known as "the Shard." But ambition and arrogance have blinded the pair to the building's disregard for London's history and character," writes Ulrike Knöfel.

"Every skyscraper serves as a symbol. This glass tower is meant to show that London can defy the financial crisis, or at least that's how London Mayor Boris Johnson phrased it a year ago. In the worst-case scenario, the glass wedge will simply become a symbol of the fact that everything in London is growing fancier and more expensive, and that it's time for old England, with its eroding working class, to abandon the city and its exorbitant costs of living."