Shangri-La, Asia Pacific’s most prestigious luxury hotel group, made its European debut with the launch of its new five-star hotel within The Shard, the 306m-high tower that is already an international symbol for London. The hotel occupies levels 34 to 52, making it Western Europe’s tallest. It has 202 rooms with breathtaking city views, an international restaurant, gym, pool and impressive business facilities.
WSP has been providing multi-disciplinary engineering design and consulting to Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts since the 1990s, and played a prominent role on this landmark project. We were appointed to deliver MEP and structural engineering design for the hotel fit-out. At the conceptual stage, we carried out a thorough review of the base building’s fire strategy, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, drainage, fire and electrical systems and lift provisions to make sure they would meet the client’s requirements.
The pyramid shape of the base building means no single guestroom is the same and interior design is unique to each, significantly complicating building services design, coordination and installation. We nonetheless found ways to maximise hotel efficiency, designing an intelligent guestroom control system to achieve long-term energy savings. The system has display and remote control functions to manage room conditions to suit different occupancy modes, controls black-out blinds and provides user override control on external solar blinds. Our structural work for the Shangri-La included design of a glazed lift shaft in the lobby, and advice on the support of large glass artwork and chandeliers in the ground floor entrance.
We also acted as structural engineer for the Shard base building, working closely with the architect Renzo Piano, client Sellar Property and contractor Mace to deliver the European Union’s tallest tower rapidly and safely.
