Featured Architect
Foster + Partners

Foster + Partners is a global studio for sustainable architecture, urbanism and design, founded by Norman Foster in 1967. Since then, he, and the team around him, have established an international practice with a worldwide reputation. With offices across the globe, we work as a single studio that is both ethnically and culturally diverse.

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we undertake. We audit all projects against global standards, while developing bespoke strategies that drive our environmental agenda. To build sustainably requires us to design holistically, and our unique integrated design approach enables us to develop innovative strategies that have a firm focus on the future of the environment. From within the practice, structural and environmental engineers, together with many other specialist design teams, work alongside the architects to develop fully integrated design solutions. Every project starts with fresh thinking, leading to a solution that is tailor-made to both site and user. Design is typically undertaken by a small, close-knit team; the team that starts a project sees it through to completion, thus providing continuity throughout. We always consider the built environment as a totality and to apply a truly integrated approach to responsible design.

The strategic direction of the practice is set by the Partnership Board: Norman Foster (Founder and Executive Chairman), Stefan Behling, Grant Brooker, Nigel Dancey, Spencer de Grey, Gerard Evenden, Luke Fox, David Nelson, Matthew Streets and David Summerfield. Day to day management is provided by the Management Board, drawn from the wider group of senior partners and partners, all of whom share in the ownership of the practice and are central to its continuing evolution. Maintaining the design ethos of the practice, the Design Board has overall design responsibility for every project, from the start of the design process through to construction drawings.

The principles of sustainability are integral to our work. We strive to design buildings that address the effects of climate change, create urban quarters that support thriving communities, and look to improve the quality of life in a city for all. Our CSER policy is similarly driven by a desire to deliver lasting benefits, applying the same sustainable principles to our own operations. We take our commitment to education very seriously and we invest our time and skills, as well as financial support, in educational and charitable initiatives. We have well-established links with a number of schools and universities around the world, funding awards and prizes and supporting educational activities such as design crits, graduate shows and visits to the studio. Our internship and apprenticeship programmes give valuable experience and teaching opportunities to students from a wide range of backgrounds and we have strong links with the Stephen Lawrence Trust. We continue to support the ​RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Scholarship programme. Our charitable activities include Macmillan Cancer Support and Crisis and Open House. From our pro bono projects to construct a community boathouse in New York and reimagining children’s playgrounds in London, to refurbishing London Zoo’s Snowdon Aviary to create a new home for Colobus monkeys, our work aims to create new opportunities and a better future for all.

Foster + Partners‘ sustainability manifesto demonstrates the practice’s ongoing commitment towards achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. Outlining a holistic sustainable approach, our methodology, developed in collaboration with others and drawing on the practice’s experience and expertise, enables the measurement of embodied and operational carbon in each project. This process gives greater insight into the different aspects that affect the environmental impact of a project and provides tools to mitigate and lower their carbon content.

more. www.fosterandpartners.com