A crystal geometry

In his Architecture and design blog, Oliver Wainwright describes London post-Shard as a "new crystal city", with architects and planners following Renzo Piano's lead in "renouncing the orthogonal world of rectilinear boxes in favour of the chiselled glass chunk". Wainwright recalls the dreamy proposals of Expressionist architect Bruno Taut, whose utopian vision for glass cities in the mountains, he writes, "has been translated by lesser hands into hefty commercial office slabs."

Though it can't compare to Taut's mercurial glass fantasy, the Shard itself does have a certain allure - as an image on the horizon at least, which is how I experience it daily... From afar its non-pinnacle appears to fade up and into the clouds while its tapering points are poised to unfurl as though around an organic form (Blossfeldt's plant portraits come to mind). The shimmering translucency of its panels, its asymmetry and obtuse angles give it a softer, more ethereal silhouette than the capital's other towers.

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"...for Wenzel Hablik a crystal geometry emerged in a philosophy he called 'Cyklus Architektur', based on the manipulation of faceted surfaces and towers of indefinite height."