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INDUSTRY VIEWFINDER


use, and respondents were generally optimistic that passive design approaches and other sustainable innovations were achievable in tall buildings.


Since that survey, the industry has seen the implementation of the Building Safety Act in 2022, which brought about a number of changes including the Gateway approach as recommended in the Hackitt Report, and the introduction of the Golden Thread. Towns and cities have seen commuters return, therefore potentially making tall urban projects more viable once again. With so much having changed and evolved since 2021, it’s interesting to gain fresh insight on how architects feel about the future of tall buildings, including their perspectives on the new building safety measures and how these have impacted their projects. We also repeated several of our 2021 questions in order to make a direct comparison and evaluate how opinions and views have changed on the viability of tall buildings. The fi rst question immediately sheds light on the future of tall buildings itself, with 56% of architects saying they have not been involved in the design of tall or high-rise buildings; however in 2021 that fi gure was 71%, indicating that uptake has in fact increased.


While some views in our new study bring clear conclusions – such as the fact the vast majority (72%) see mixed use as the dominant ‘use class’ for tall buildings – a few were inconclusive, indicating that architects are in urgent need of clearer guidance and clarifi cation on how recent changes impact potential projects and whether they are truly viable going forward.


Survey fi ndings: changing attitudes Something that is immediately clear from our second, 2025 survey was that more architects are indeed working on tall buildings – albeit the number still not particularly high. In this survey, 44% of respondents said they have been involved in the design of tall or high rise buildings; not a particularly remarkable number on its own, but a signifi cant increase on the 29% that said yes in 2021. These fi ndings tie in with those in the then-CTBUH’s report that the number of completed high rise buildings globally has increased since the decline seen during Covid, and shows there is sustained demand for such buildings.


Mixed use dominance Tall buildings having previously been criticised for being “impersonal,” somewhat disconnected from the streets around them and the communities living and working among them, as well as typically catering to a more high-end, or non-residential market. It’s one of the drivers behind a push for mixed use buildings that are better integrated into the area they’re built within, with better street-level presence, with another driver being the long-term impact of Covid. Confi rming that the construction of high rise buildings exclusively


for offi ce use is unlikely, 72% of respondents said mixed use would be the dominant use class. However this is a slight decrease on 2021 when 85% said it would be, though this year we did give respondents the option of ‘unsure,’ which 24% chose. Only 4% said no, compared to 15% in 2021, which would suggest that there


are a reasonable number who don’t feel confi dent either way. Could this be a result of legislative changes causing confusion, or a general reluctance from many architects to be involved in tall buildings at all? This year’s study results suggested the move from urban areas


and offi ce working during and shortly after Covid has not lasted in perhaps the way the industry thought it might, with less architects now seeing it as a contributing factor to opt for mixed use. An indication from our sample that more workers are in fact returning to urban offi ce spaces, when hybrid working was previously dominant, this helps support the commercial case for tall buildings.


Sustainability


The sustainability credentials of tall buildings has been a particular source of debate thanks to various factors. These include the high embodied carbon of the materials – commonly concrete, steel and glass – used to construct them, their high operational energy use thanks to elements such as lifts, HVAC systems and artifi cial lighting, and even the impact of the shadows they create on neighbouring buildings and spaces. In particular, the use of glass as the dominant facade material in tall buildings causes challenges relating to both solar gain and loss, possibly leading to an overreliance on HVAC systems. We asked respondents of both surveys whether tall buildings clad in glass will represent a sustainable option in the future given our shared global carbon goals, and the consensus is largely unchanged. In 2021 40% said yes, whereas in 2025 that fi gure was 29%, showing only a slight decrease and emphasising that the use of glass is indeed a concern from a sustainability perspective. However, perhaps more alarmingly, in our recent survey we also offered architects the option of ‘unsure,’ which was picked by 33% of respondents. Once again, according to our sample it would seem architects are unsure on their stance. Looking further into sustainability factors, we asked how achievable passive design approaches are in UK tall buildings. In a slightly more positive comparison than the overall sustainability question, those ranking passive design as ‘not at all achievable’ dropped from 13% in 2021 to zero in 2025. Conversely, in 2021, 20% of architects said it was ‘very achievable,’ whereas in 2025 that had dropped to just 2%. However, with the percentage ranking it as ‘achievable’ increasing fairly signifi cantly from 18% to 34%, it could be argued that while there is perhaps not as much confi dence, there are still a similar number of architects seeing it as a possibility. Currently most architects seem to fall somewhere in the middle, not particularly confi dent either way. The mixed picture does ultimately indicate a lack of a defi nitive view on the possibilities of passive design in tall buildings. With tall buildings having become the norm in many urban areas due to both the cost and lack of suitable land to build on, we asked our respondents should they be the preferred solution for high-value urban clusters? In 2021 49% responded no, and that fi gure changed only marginally this year, dropping to 43%. However, while in 2021 the remaining 51% opted for yes – the only other option presented at the time – in our 2025 survey we also offered ‘unsure’ as a


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ADF NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2025


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