National Portrait Gallery
Purpose
Beautiful engineering for a sustainable future
We are Max Fordham. A partnership of engineers, designers and consultants, working with the built environment, to deliver a sustainable future and a thriving planet.
Our practice
From the very start, Max sought a collaborative approach to running a business. He felt that designing a system for people to work in productively and creatively was as important as the design of the buildings themselves.
Max was quoted as saying "It's a responsibility-sharing scheme, not a profit-sharing scheme” and "if they're fit to be an employee, then they're fit to be a Partner". These principles remain to this day.
Beautiful Engineering
Our long-standing design philosophy, inspired by Max, endures today. ‘Beautiful Engineering’ encapsulates our belief in elegant, sustainable outcomes that are good for humanity and good for the planet.
‘Beautiful’ is about more than just visual or aesthetic beauty. It also describes the craft that goes into devising a carefully considered, elegant solution that is tailored to the specific needs of the building and its users. And sometimes beauty is in what you can’t see: a simple or detailed design that is invisible to the eye but performs exactly as intended. Max’s approach was always to work with the surrounding environment, to use it to minimise the need for unnecessary technology or materials. This philosophy still underpins our designs to this day.
‘Engineering’ is done by more than just engineers. The word ‘engineering’ is derived from the Latin 'ingeniare' meaning 'to contrive, devise' and 'ingenium' meaning 'cleverness'. These perfectly capture the approach of all our people, whether they're an engineer, a consultant, or a designer.
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Related projects
58 years of environmental responsibility
Long before it was the "standard", we were pioneering low-energy and low-carbon building design, and we remain at the forefront to this day.
A list of all the milestones along the way would run for several pages, but here are a choice few.
Truly sustainable buildings by a truly sustainable business
Our world is facing a climate and biodiversity emergency and we’re fully committed to continue pushing boundaries, to keep learning, keep sharing what we’ve learnt, and keep campaigning for our industry to do better.
Max was a pioneer in sustainable, low-energy and low-carbon building design, and the practice remains at the forefront of applying net zero carbon, Passivhaus, environmental design, strategic sustainability, and circular economy and reuse strategies to the built environment.
As a business we ‘practice what we preach’ through our various commitments, including the Science Based Targets initiative, the World Green Building Council (GBC) Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, and being the first UK business to have all our offices verified as net zero carbon in operation.
2019
Building Services Engineers Declare
2020
World GBC Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment
2022
Science Based Targets initiative
2024
Beautiful engineering for a sustainable future
Related journal entries
The Net Zero Carbon Guide
The Net Zero Carbon Guide, a free and open resource, is here to help navigate the process of achieving net zero carbon for both old and new buildings.
Creating a better world
From our earliest days, we have been dedicated to creating positive change for people, far above and beyond the impact of our work. Our essential community engagement activities are focused on areas that can have the biggest impact and mean the most to our people. We deliver social value activities, community engagement workshops, and pro bono work that makes a lasting tangible difference to our local communities, future generations of engineers and designers, and wider society.
We’re proud of how deeply our team cares and will always do the right thing. Even when no one is looking, and there isn’t a box to tick, or an obligation to fulfil.
Quote
"Our people are all driven by a strong desire to deliver high quality work that makes a positive contribution to the world around us."
Alasdair Reid
BEng CEng MCIBSE
Director, Chair of Managing Partners
Partner
Developing countries projects
On philanthropic projects in less economically developed countries around the world, we provide engineering expertise on community projects that normally can’t access this kind of assistance. Projects range in scale from designing a single house to advising governments on school design.
We often work on education and healthcare buildings, addressing fundamental needs such as water, sanitation, and shelter. Our contributions are generally provided pro bono, supported by funding from the practice and the donation of time from staff.
All services
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All buildings should be comfortable and a pleasure to be in: warm, well-lit, well-ventilated, well-used, and well-loved. Our mechanical and electrical engineering, vertical transportation, acoustics, daylight, and lighting design services can help ensure just that. We maximise passive measures such as natural ventilation and daylighting, seamlessly dovetailing our designs with the building’s own form and architecture to result in simple, low-energy, and low-cost building services.
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In the face of an increasingly urgent climate emergency, it’s crucial that buildings consume as little energy as possible in their operation. Low energy, low carbon, and low operational costs are our watchwords when it comes to designing new buildings or retrofitting existing ones. We help our clients build sustainability goals into masterplans or early-stage feasibility studies, decarbonise existing estates, and optimise how a building performs against its targets for sustainability and user comfort.
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Meeting net zero carbon targets and minimising a building’s impact on the environment means reducing embodied carbon – the carbon tied up in the materials like steel, concrete, and plastic that go into a building’s construction and services design – as much as operational carbon (the carbon a building produces in its heating, cooling, and lighting). We facilitate material reuse with circular economy strategies, steer low embodied carbon design from the earliest project stages with whole life carbon assessments, and offer advice on planning and compliance, all helping to reduce the carbon footprint of construction.