Tall buildings have a profound impact on our cities and their skylines - they shape them and reflect the aspirations of their inhabitants.
The recent Tall Buildings Awards paid homage to the very best of these iconic structures and the teams behind them.
Hosted by Peter Murray OBE - co-founder of NLA (New London Architecture) the awards took place at an informal drinks reception immediately following the Tall Buildings Conference at etc.venues St Pauls, London.
With 11 categories, the Tall Buildings Awards celebrate excellence in an increasingly complex world that must respond to the issues of sustainability, mixed-use, community living, the circular economy and stringent legislation. Turning the spotlight on the architects, engineers, contractors and the clients who plan and execute tall buildings, the awards recognise the achievement of delivering projects of the highest quality. This year the judges had the difficult task of selecting 11 winners from over 100 outstanding entries.
College Road
Picking up three awards and a Highly Commended accolade, Tide and Vision were crowned ‘Winner of Winners' on the night for College Road and their groundbreaking volumetric building system. The pioneering development in East Croydon, South London by offsite developer and contractor, Tide and its volumetric company, Vision - comprises two of the world's tallest volumetric modular buildings delivering almost 1000 new homes. A 35-storey tower provides 120 affordable homes, and a 50-storey tower provides 817 co-living homes - one of the largest co-living developments across the globe.
The scheme won Best Residential Tall Building Project and MJH Structural Engineers and Barrett Mahony Consulting Engineers were Highly Commended in the Best Tall Building Structural Engineer category for their outstanding work on the towers.
Tide and Vision also claimed the coveted prize for the Tall Building Technology Innovation Award for their Vision Volumetric System. This advanced offsite technology is leading the way in volumetric high-rise developments worldwide. Vision operates under a vertically integrated procurement model with developer and contractor Tide. Together they have delivered almost £4 billion worth of assets. In 2023 they completed College Road - the first volumetric modular tower to reach 163 meters high, making it the tallest in Europe and the second in the world.
8 Bishopsgate
Another big winner on the night, 8 Bishopsgate picked up three awards. Ove Arup and Partners, WilkinsonEyre, Lendlease Construction Europe and Stanhope jointly claimed the trophy for Best Commercial Tall Building Project, with Lendlease also picking up the coveted prize for Best Tall Building Contractor. In addition, Arup was awarded the prestigious Best Tall Building Structural Engineer for their work on the project.
A distinctive addition to the City of London's skyline for Stanhope & Mitsubishi Estate, 8 Bishopsgate is characterised by its attention to detail, holistic approach to sustainability and rigorous integration of structure and services into the overarching architectural vision. Conceptually, the building challenges the traditional tower by breaking the massing into smaller blocks, allowing the high-rise form to address the site constraints and bring human scale to the building.
Portlands Place
With two wins and a Highly Commended trophy, the team behind Portlands Place also celebrated a multi-award winning evening. Portlands Place takes rental living to another level. Plot N06 is the latest addition to Get Living's East Village build-to-rent redevelopment of the 2012 Olympic Athletes' Village. It provides 524 homes across two towers of 31 and 26 storeys, linked together with a double height skybridge, which contains the main communal amenity and rooftop terraces overlooking the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to the west.
Get Living won the valued award for Best Tall Building Client of the year and Hawkins\Brown were crowned Best Tall Building Architect for the design of Portlands Place. Hawkins\Brown were also Highly Commended in the Best Residential Tall Building Project category.
Get Living strives to create places that bring people together and that are fit for the future. Portlands Place does exactly that, with its market-leading amenity space and focus on social living. It is situated in a prime location with extensive parks and wetlands on the doorstep for residents.
DAMAC Tower
Winner of the Best Tall Building Facade & Fenestration Engineering Project for WSP and Highly Commended in the Best Tall Building Architect category for Kohn Pedersen Fox, DAMAC Tower is a vertical mixed-use community. Offering market and affordable homes, retail, and office spaces DAMAC Tower is a sculptural composition of terra cotta, reconstituted stone and glass. The scheme consists of three distinct elements composed to create impressive views from every aspect of the development. The all-electric building features residential amenities, a roof garden and a six-storey skybridge.
Best Sustainable Tall Building Award
A ground source heat pump retrofit project by Kensa Contracting and Thurrock Council, upgraded inefficient night storage heaters to Kensa's networked heat pumps in 273 flats across three social housing towers. This initiative will significantly reduce carbon emissions and lift residents out of fuel poverty. Winning the Best Sustainable Tall Building Award, the team delivered the large-scale renewable retrofit project, installing highly efficient ground source heat pumps. 7,166 tonnes of carbon will be saved over 25 years and residents have secured 66% savings on their heating and hot water bills.
Best Tall Building MEP Services Project
21 Moorfields is a flagship, high-specification office development situated over London's Moorgate underground and rail station and the Elizabeth line ticket hall. Providing approximately 55,000m² of prime office space across 14 floors, the development is supported by a substantially resilient services strategy, normally only seen in data centres. It has BREEAM ‘Outstanding', LEED Gold ratings and is WELL ready, and will serve as Deutsche Bank's new UK and European headquarters. Winning Best Tall Building MEP Services Project for Cundall and MEP contractor Gratte Brothers - the team provided MEP, sustainability and vertical transportation analysis and design.
Tall Buildings Awards
To discover more about the winning projects and the Tall Buildings Awards go to: www.radarbookingsystem.co.uk/tall-buildings-awards/2024-winners
