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The number of flats being built at Mace鈥檚 Shard Place tower in London Bridge will increase by almost a fifth.

The firm is well underway with work on the 26-storey building, believed to a have a construction pricetag of 拢120m and which was previously nicknamed the Shardette.

Designed by Renzo Piano, it is being built in the shadow of the architect鈥檚 Shard along with his News 黑洞社区, home of newspapers such as the Times and Sun.

The scheme is being developed by Real Estate Management and Sellar Group, which is also behind Piano鈥檚 Cube building over in west London.

Shard Place was originally consented to have 148 apartments but in plans just approved by Southwark council, the number of individual homes will be increased to 176, through the introduction of new one-bedroom apartments, many of which are set to be created by splitting duplex homes in the building鈥檚 middle storeys.

The 28 new properties also include a handful of additional studio apartments, as well as two-bedroom properties, but the changes mean the building, which is replacing 1950s office Fielden House, will no longer feature any four-bedroom homes.

A planning statement supporting the application said no changes were proposed to the commercial elements of the scheme and that the proposals did not increase the floorspace or the external mass and form of Shard Place鈥檚 external envelope.

It added that the increased housing numbers would 鈥渃ontinue to deliver 35% affordable housing鈥�. Southwark asked for an additional 拢1.12m to fund offsite affordable housing based on the increased number of habitable rooms in the revised scheme.

Other firms working on the scheme include Turner & Townsend as project manager and Gardiner & Theobald as QS.