Credit: Howells Architects

The Octagon, part of central Birmingham’s £1.2 billion Paradise Estate and winner of the Architects Journal (AJ) Masterplan of the Year 2022, is the first pure octagonal high-rise residential building in the world. 

Taller than the BT Tower (formerly the Post Office Tower) and completed in 2025, Octagon is 155 metres high, the tallest structure in Birmingham and a unique 49-storey landmark instantly recognisable across the city.

Generous windows line each facet of the Octagon. Credit: Howells Architects

Making the most of its location the Octagon tower houses 370 new homes with superb views and thanks to its unique shape, each apartment has an unusually wide 13-metre outlook bringing plenty of daylight.

The octagonal plan creates a structure that is both elegant and resource-conscious – a ‘less is more’ philosophy expressed at scale

The octagonal plan with its central core providing structural stability and the ‘radial’ arrangement of the internal spaces provides generous space for the eight apartments on each floor.

A prefabricated façade, finished in a subtle two-tone paint, animates the tower as light moves across its surfaces. This play of tone and shadow gives Octagon a sense of depth and refinement, while ensuring consistency and efficiency in construction.

It also delivers significant efficiencies in construction: with a lower wall-to-floor ratio and shorter service routes.

Credit: Howells Architects

“At Howells, we recognise the built environment’s impact on biodiversity, pollution, and climate change … for new buildings, this means exploring alternatives to new materials by reusing existing resources – thus reducing new extraction of raw materials – which will need little (re)processing to get a new lease of life and purpose.”

Credit: Quadrant

Credit: Quadrant

High quality natural cork carbon-negative flooring was specified by the architects using ‘Corkform Spirit Ecru’ from Quadrant.

Corkform is made predominantly of natural material recycled from the bottle-stopper industry, it has all of cork’s unique benefits: great acoustics, walking comfort and thermal insulation and it’s exceptionally durable.

Corkform is also a carbon negative alternative to timber, laminate and LVT floors. Containing no PVC, it meets the strictest international indoor air quality standards.

When the carbon sequestered by the cork oak forest is taken into consideration, Corkforms’s carbon balance is a remarkable -101kg CO2 eq/m2.

Featuring a robust 2G locking system, Corkform is suitable for heavy commercial use and can be installed as a floating floor or permanently glued down.

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