Government rejects 'Tulip' tower amid sustainability concerns

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, has rejected plans for the 350m-tall "Tulip" tower in London, amid concerns about its design and sustainability.

Construction of the Tulip, which was approved by the City of London Corporation in 2019 after a 2018 planning application, was tipped to be given the green light. But Gove accepted the recommendation of planning inspector David Nicholson who produced a report following a public inquiry last year.

In the report, Nicholson argued that the tower had "poor lifetime sustainability". The report said: "Although considerable efforts have been made to adopt all available sustainability techniques to make the construction and operation of the scheme as sustainable as possible, fulfilling the brief with a tall, reinforced concrete lift shaft, would result in a scheme with very high embodied energy and an unsustainable whole lifecycle."

The tower, designed by Foster + Partners, would have featured a 12-storey glass viewing pod on top of a slender concrete shaft, creating a shape that earned the proposed building its nickname.

This article originally appeared on Construction Manager