Ideas of fragmentation, colour, participation and sustainability have come together in the creation of a new landmark for London.

Devised by architect Renzo Piano, striking Central Saint Giles has been attracting attention ever since its glazed ceramic facades in tiles of red, orange, yellow, green and grey began to appear in 2009.

Central Saint Giles is a dense building, providing 400,000 sq ft net of office, retail and residential space on a constrained site in the West End.  Piano's design is intended to reduce the bulk of the building, through the use of thousands of individual tiles cladding the multiple separate facades of the building.  By "fragmenting" the building in this way, its scale appears reduced. 

Piano says:  "Fragmentation for me is one of the elements inspired by the place.  It was a kind of obsession on this scheme - the spirit of fragmentation of the city, which has been growing in a kind of medieval, organic system."

This use of small pieces to make up the whole was necessary in order to introduce such bold colour into the building, Piano says.  "If you want to use brilliant colour, then you have to break down the scale of the façade.  The colour idea came from observing the sudden, surprising presence of brilliant colour in that part of the city.  I don't think cities should be boring, should be repetitive.  One of the reasons we have such beautiful cities is they are full of surprises."

Maurits van der Staay, also of RPBW, explains:  "We really worked a long time on getting the right palette so it goes very well with the natural colours around the building, that's why they're not shocking, they're just joyful."

The colour of the kiln-fired ceramic tiles appears to alter in different lights, providing a new experience for people viewing the building at different times of day and in changing weather conditions.

The transparent ground level of the building adds a feeling of permeability at street level, allowing passers by to see through and into the site, which will be linked into its surrounds by five pedestrian entrances leading into a new public piazza.

The scheme has achieved a BREEAM "Excellent" rating, as well as a Very Good EcoHomes rating, and Piano explains that sustainability was key to informing the design.  "In this century we show a new understanding that earth is fragile, and it's vulnerable and energy is not infinite.  (However), sustainability is not just about spending less money on heating and air conditioning, it's also about being more humanistic."

Peter Williams, of Arup, remembers the early days of the project, when the design was still being evolved.  He recalls "I remember coming to look at the old building, the Ministry of Defence building, and it was terrible.  It was really hard to imagine at the time what it could look like."

"Anybody who sees this building is going to know where it is.  If you fly into Heathrow and do the curve over the city it's going to stand out, a landmark for all London.  I'm deeply proud to have been involved in it."