Central to our ethos is an appetite for enquiry, discovery and understanding. By maintaining a commitment to research – one of our great strengths as a practice – we are not only up to date with new developments and techniques but are also able to thoroughly evaluate their relevance and technical performance for individual projects. Our commitment to technology is a means to the social ends of making the world a better place through design. This philosophy maintains the spirit of creative endeavour on which the practice was founded. Our research groups help design teams to answer the challenges we face in the spirit of innovation.
Technology and Research
Technology and Research at Foster + Partners
Related Projects
The Applied R+D (Research + Development) team is an integrated multi-disciplinary team of architects and engineers, who are also expert programmers. Our expertise ranges from art, aerospace engineering, and computer science to landscape architecture, structural engineering and applied mathematics...
The Specialist Modelling Group focusses on three core areas, Geometry and Building Physics and Innovation. The Geometry team works on Complex Geometrical Modelling and Fabrication Strategies. The Building Physics team looks at the movement of natural light, air and sound, while focussing on occupant comfort. The Innovation projects include collaborative research with universities and industry partners, exploring far-reaching ideas from bio-inspired engineering to extra-planetary 3D printing.
Providing an information and research service for the practice, the Materials Research Centre and the Information Centre together look at current and new materials, products, companies, technology, innovation, sustainability and technical issues. The Materials Research Centre is an in-house reference that houses over twenty thousand samples of materials and products. The Information Centre is a physical library of product literature including brochures, catalogues and technical information.
The Technical Design Group ensures that specialised solutions and innovation, alongside construction quality and technical detail, are present in all the practice’s work. The Technical Design Group carries out reviews of the technical design of projects at regular intervals after scheme design until completion. This ensures that high standards of technical quality are maintained in every project.