Max Fordham projects account for four of the six-strong RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist for 2026

Lion Green Road is a landscape-led residential development in the London Borough of Croydon, delivering 157 new homes across five sculpted pavilion buildings set within a richly planted parkland setting. The scheme responds to a challenging sloping site while creating a distinctive new neighbourhood that combines higher-density housing with generous open space, biodiversity and strong connections to the surrounding landscape. The pavilion arrangement maximises daylight, privacy and views, with homes organised around shared gardens, play spaces and allotments.

We developed the MEP design to Employer's Requirements Stage 3 and undertook sustainability, energy and overheating modelling to support planning, helping shape a scheme that prioritises comfort, resilience and low operational energy use. A fabric-first approach combines highly insulated, airtight construction with high-performance glazing and careful detailing of thermal bridges. To address the challenges of a warming climate, glazing ratios, solar gains and shading measures were carefully balanced, with inset balconies and deep window reveals helping to reduce overheating risk while maintaining excellent daylight levels. A high proportion of dual-aspect homes enables effective cross-ventilation, supported by generous opening windows and summer bypass modes on MVHR systems to provide low-energy cooling. Together with LED lighting and other passive design measures, these strategies create comfortable, low-carbon homes that are efficient to operate and resilient for the future.

Mill Lane is part of Pembroke College’s £75 million wider masterplan and multi-phase transformation, the largest expansion of the college since the 14^th century. The development includes the extension of several historic buildings and the creation of a new residential court.

The Mill Lane project represented a unique opportunity for Pembroke College to expand within the city centre, directly adjacent to its existing estate. Many of the buildings on the Mill Lane site were fully or partially retained and repurposed. The project transforms a congested urban site by bringing together listed and historically significant buildings with new development, providing social, teaching and living accommodation alongside flexible cultural and performance spaces that serve both the college and the wider city.

The project prioritised the transition away from gas boilers, creating a fossil fuel-free site through the integration of a low-carbon heating network. We worked together with the team to set the sustainability strategy, steering it through planning and a complex BREEAM assessment.

The transformation of Hertford Theatre has created a fossil fuel free multi-purpose arts and culture venue for live performances and film.

We worked alongside Bennetts Associates to transform and extend Hertford Theatre, providing MEP engineering and sustainability consultancy for the arts venue, which is now fossil fuel-free. The project grew out of East Herts District Council’s recognition that culture is a vital contributor to the future prosperity and wellbeing of local people. The newly renamed BEAM cultural hub also provides an all-day café/bar and events spaces for community use. 

BEAM incorporates the shell of the old theatre and its stage and backstage areas, but adds significant new spaces for the cinemas, studio, and café/bar spaces in a series of brick-clad volumes. These new spaces enclose a covered triangular courtyard space, which forms the main foyer. The main theatre was transformed from a 400-seat flat-floor room with a large retractable seating unit, into a 547-seat auditorium with a shallow-raked stalls, a balcony and a fully accessible technical grid. A second theatre space opened in 2025. 

Working with Witherford Watson Mann and Freeland Rees Roberts, we are supporting Clare College's ambitious efforts to conserve and improve the Grade I-listed Old Court, undergoing a three-phase process to upgrade facilities for students, faculty, and staff and to preserve the historic building for future generations. 

The River Room Café, designed by Witherford Watson Mann Architects, combines the challenges of working in a confined space and alongside historic building fabric, which meant that the structure was constructed in timber to sit within the space. The site required the clever use of light wells and exact detailing to fit the services into the cabinetry. The River Room uses a mixed-mode ventilation scheme including mechanical ventilation heat recovery (MVHR). Ductwork runs are concealed within services trenches in the slab, to maximise useable floor-to-ceiling heights while complying with strict planning requirements. The café, finely detailed in brick and wood, opens out to the River Cam with a view to the Fellows Garden. The main college kitchens were refurbished, and innovative MEP design utilised medieval chimney flues to route the kitchen extract ventilation.