The North Korean Origins Of Renzo Piano's Shard Tower

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Apparently I�m not the only one who thinks London�s Shard skyscraper (shameless article-I-wrote-about-London-skyscrapers plug) looks like Pyongyang�s Ryugyong Hotel. Koryo Tours, the only tour group that offers westerners package to North Korea, plays up the similarities on its blog:

To the eyes of us all at Koryo Tours it looks like Renzo Piano has been copying Pyongyang�

(Note the following is not 100% accurate � but close!)

Spot the differences & spot the similarities�

TRUE OR FALSE? answers below:

The Ryugyong was designed in 1987 and is an exaggerated pyramid shape covered in glass. The Shard was designed in 2000 to look like a shard (umm or an exaggerated pyramid shape covered in glass)

Ryugyong hotel to be completed in 2012 (at least on the outside)  - Shard to be completed in May 2012

Ryugyong has 105 storeys  the Shard has 72 useable floors (15 additional radiator floors)

Ryugyong is the 39th tallest building in the world , the Shard is the 45th tallest building in the world.

Permission to build the Ryugyong hotel was granted by North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, Development  plans for the Shard were opposed by local authorities and heritage bodies but in 2003 British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott (the supposed arbiter of good taste) announced that construction had been approved.

The Ryugyong has a lift travelling up the outside edge of the building. The Shard (pathetically!) does not. [...]

ALL TRUE!!! come on a trip with Koryo Tours in 2012 and we will show it to you!

Unfortunately since I�m a journalist I�m not allowed on the tours, but if anyone�s willing to go on the trip and then violate DPRK law by writing about it afterwards, I�d be happy to post your travelogue! Perhaps you could provide us some updated information on Pyongyang�s transit system? Or its urban plan? The food is �far from fantastic,� but the tour guides deem it �very unlikely� that the hotel rooms are bugged! (Although given that the Romanians managed to bug pretty much everything right down to the restaurant ashtrays in the �80s, it seems unlikely in this age of cheap electronics that the North Koreans would forego such intelligence measures, especially given the paucity of foreigners in the country.)