Stefan Behling

Senior Partner

Stefan Behling is Design Director of Group 4 and a member of the Design Board. He has responsibility for an international portfolio of projects, varying in scale from strategic masterplans to a wide range of educational, commercial, residential and cultural buildings. He has a Diploma in Architecture from the University of Aachen (RWTH) and joined Foster Associates in 1987.

He leads the practice’s research into sustainable design and the use of new materials and methods in construction, and established the Material Research Centre (MRC). He is also responsible for the Specialist Modelling Group (SMG), a multi-disciplinary, project-driven research team consisting of architects, engineers, mathematicians, building physicists and environmental scientists who are experts in all aspects of environmental analysis, computational design and digital fabrication. He has worked on a number of projects that have pioneered new techniques for energy efficiency and resource management, including the Business Promotion Centre in Duisburg, the Reichstag in Berlin, the Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt, the McLaren Technology Centre, City Hall in London, the Lenbach Haus in Munich, the Free University of Berlin and the carbon-neutral settlement, Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. His current projects include the Apple Campus in California and Kuwait International Airport.

Since 1995 he has held the post of Professor of Building Construction, Technology and Design at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, teaching integrated design. He has led numerous research projects and has lectured and published widely. His books include Sol Power, discussing the use of solar energy in architecture and the evolution of sustainable design; and Glass, Structure and Technology, focusing on special glass construction, high-performance building envelopes and sustainable design, both written with his wife, Sophia Behling.