Conrad Shawcross is a remarkable artist. The last few years have been anni mirabili for the boyishly handsome British sculptor, who is the youngest ever Royal Academician at a mere 38. He has had solo exhibitions at the London's Roundhouse and Science Museum and Paris' Palais de Tokyo. He placed a sprawling steel forest in the courtyard of the Royal Academy last summer; a beautifully chaotic addition to the stiff neo-classicism of the surrounding buildings. (Oh, and his ex got engaged to Benedict Cumberbatch. But hey - you win some, you lose some)

You can tell a Shawcross from a mile off. His works lie on the borders of geometry and philosophy, physics and metaphysics. His structural montages in cast iron and bronze have become increasingly large-scale in recent years.

This year, Shawcross unveils his latest project, The Optic Cloak, an 'architectural intervention' (AKA huge sculpture) on Greenwich Peninsula. His most ambitious public commission to date, the 50m structure is made up of triangular pains of glass, set at angles, that make them shimmer and shift as you pass by. We think it's beautiful, like Kubla Khan's pleasure dome, ot the turret of some kind of ice palace, or - especially at evening when it's lit up. If only they'd asked him to design The Shard...