Transforming an iconic high-rise with circular economy thinking and innovative concrete reuse.
Euston Tower, located at Regent’s Place in London’s Knowledge Quarter, is being transformed by British Land. The 31-storey tower will be reborn as 560,000 sq ft of workspace and public realm.
The project comes at a time of growing demand for future-ready offices in London. Data from New London Architecture’s Tall Buildings Survey 2025 shows planning applications for tall buildings rose by almost a quarter between 2023 and 2024. Alongside this growth, local planning policies are encouraging asset owners to explore reuse rather than demolition, creating opportunities to embed circular economy thinking into high-rise developments.
At Euston Tower, the project team - including 3XN Architects and GXN, Arup, Adamson Associates Architects, DSDHA and the University of Surrey - identified that 31% of the original structure, including the reinforced concrete core, basement and pile foundations, could be retained in situ. Keeping these elements avoids demolition, prevents waste and reduces the need for new materials, delivering early carbon savings and forming the foundation of a more circular approach to construction.
The existing concrete floor slabs could not be retained in-situ due, in part to the requirement for higher floor-to-floor heights. Ordinarily, this concrete would be crushed and recycled – but the team turned this challenge into an opportunity. A 4.5m by 1.2m section of slab was carefully cut and extracted, creating a reusable precast element. Laboratory testing confirmed that the concrete’s condition and performance made it suitable for reuse in another structural application. This first of its kind UK trial provides practical insights into how recovered concrete could be reintegrated into new buildings, supporting a circular economy and reducing the environmental impact of demolition.
The redeveloped tower achieves a low upfront embodied carbon intensity of 703 kgCO₂e/m² (A1–A5). The fully electric design is targeting BREEAM Outstanding, while the reuse of concrete demonstrates how circular thinking can be applied at scale in complex urban projects. Across the wider industry, advances in digital twin modelling, element tracking and products designed for disassembly could further support the ability to monitor, recover and reuse concrete throughout its lifecycle, strengthening the case for circular construction in the built environment.
The redevelopment of Euston Tower shows how high-rise concrete buildings can be adapted, reused and reimagined rather than demolished. By embedding circular economy principles from the outset, the project provides a blueprint for sustainable, low-carbon construction in London, demonstrating that concrete can deliver both innovation and environmental resilience in the next generation of workplaces.
Image Credits, British Land