Less is More: Tall Buildings Conference 2025

Partner Dav Bansal recently presented at the Tall Buildings Conference, where he gave an insight into the design and development of the Octagon.

A range of industry perspectives reaffirms that high-rise design plays a key role in shaping more sustainable, compact cities.

And we need to be smarter in our approach to build on ‘less is more’ which has underpinned our design for the Octagon in Birmingham, for clients MEPC, Federated Hermes and City Developments Limited, and we also need to design for a much longer life span through the potential to either repurpose or disassemble.

The intent is to build less: less surface area, less structure, fewer services, and less waste, for a higher quality in design, space, and experience. This is disrupting the formula.

A holistic view of structural design, service integration, and fabric-first is necessary for designing a lean, sustainable, and responsive tall building. A similar approach is being used with the Hexagon in Leeds, for McLaren Group.

Prefabrication and DfMA should now be the norm for this typology to reduce site waste, reduce embodied carbon, safeguard quality and address H&S on site: building at height should set the standard for how the construction industry adopts and advances modern methods of construction.

In reshaping places to become destinations and creating legibility for the city in a dense urban fabric, it is important to carefully consider the impact of wind, sun and daylight should be integral to informing the design.

At Howells, our CLEAN (Crafted, Lean, Elegant, Appropriate and Narrative) manifesto continues to be a driving force for our rationale to develop ideas and tall buildings are no exception.

My personal view on the BSA regulations is that though it is currently a frustrating process, the end game is critical to ensure safety for all and govern the outcome, as well as separate the credible developers from the dreamers.

I would like to thank Tall Buildings Media for the opportunity to present our case study, The Octagon and more importantly, to learn so much from other speakers and experts across the industry.