In the first of our City of Tomorrow podcast series, sponsored by Montagu Evans, we consider whether tall residential buildings can be social sustainable. Debating a question that has bothered generations of urbanists are Frank Filskow of Make Architects and Claire Bennie of Municipal. Holding the ring in this podcast is Dr Chris Miele of property consultancy Montagu Evans. Claire is a tall building sceptic, highlighting the difficulty of providing satisfactory play opportunities for young children and the high costs to families of living in tall buildings with higher maintenance charges. Frank is more optimistic about the place for tall buildings, not least offering housing density where land is scare. Frank also argues that when done well tall buildings can offer opportunities for different types of households without young children who can realise the benefits. However Frank and Claire agree that with anything above mid-rise, the embodied carbon involved in building upwards is very hard to justify. About the speakers Frank Filskow, Make Architects Frank is a partner of Make, with offices in London, Hong Kong and Sydney. He joined Make in 2004 and is an architect with over 30 years of international experience. He has been involved in a wide range of masterplanning, healthcare, residential and office schemes, including the award-winning civic and residential quarter in East Greenwich. Frank is an expert in large-scale workplace schemes and major residential buildings. He focuses on bringing together wellbeing and sustainability to create happier places for people to live and work as a community. His projects have won numerous accolades, including the NLA Mayor’s Prize for the Chobham Manor Masterplan. https://www.makearchitects.com/ Dr Chris Meile, Montagu Evans Chris is a chartered town planner who specialises in all forms of sensitive land, with expertise in the historic environment (listed buildings, conservation areas, World Heritage Sites, Registered Parks, Scheduled Monuments) and related landscapes (such as AONBs). He also specialises in the planning of tall developments and has promoted many projects successfully over the last 15 years, including townscape, visual impact work and the treatment of amenity issues such as loss of privacy. He has worked extensively as an Expert Witness at planning inquiries, the Lands Tribunal, the High Court QB Division and Consistory Court. Chris trained as an architectural historian and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. https://www.montagu-evans.co.uk/people/chris-miele/ Claire Bennie, Municipal Claire founded London-based architects Municipal, which specialises in working with local authorities. She was previously development director of Peabody, with a remit of continuing the housing association’s history of enlightened commissioning of new housing. During that time, she commissioned outstanding design teams and contractors who shared Peabody’s quality ambitions, delivering thousands of new homes across London for those on all incomes. Claire trained practised for 10 years before switching to the commissioning side. She is a panel member of Design South East which undertakes design reviews for a number of Local Authorities. https://www.wearemunicipal.co.uk/