Foster and Partners is an international studio for architecture, planning and design led by Norman Foster and a group of Senior Partners. Norman Foster’s philosophy of integration can be seen in the way the practice’s London design studio works; it is essentially one large open space, shared equally by everyone, and free of subdivisions to encourage good communication between the many people who come together there.

     The practice’s work ranges in scale from the largest construction project on the planet, Beijing International airport to its smallest commission, a range of door furniture. The scope of its work includes masterplans for cities, the design of buildings, interior and product design, graphics and exhibitions. These can be found throughout the world, from Britain, Europe and Scandinavia to the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

     The studio has established an international reputation with buildings such as the Swiss Re Headquarters in London, Millau Viaduct in France, the new German Parliament in the Reichstag, Berlin, The Great Court for the British Museum, Headquarters for HSBC in Hong Kong and London, Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt, the Metro Bilbao, the Carré d’Art Nîmes and Research Centres for Stanford University, California. There is also a strong interest in city planning and the infrastructure of communication.

      The central concern of the practice is design excellence, achieved through active collaboration with clients and specialists - from structural and environmental engineers to cost consultants. Management of cost and time is an important discipline and many of the practice’s award-winning projects have resulted from demanding commercial circumstances. A wide range of supporting skills underpins the work of the practice, including model making, materials research, specialist computer modelling, visualisation, as well as in-house communications, photographic and printing systems.

      Established as Foster Associates in 1967 the practice, now known as Foster and Partners, has project offices world wide with its main studio in London. The practice has worked in 55 countries and currently has projects across 22 countries. Since its inception it has received over 300 awards and citations for excellence and has won more than 60 national and international competitions. Norman Foster became the 21st Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate in 1999 and was awarded the Praemium Imperiale Award for Architecture in 2002. He has been awarded the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Architecture (1994), the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture (1983), and the Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture (1991). In 1990 he was granted a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, appointed by the Queen to the Order of Merit in 1997 and in 1999 was honoured with a Life Peerage in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, as Lord Foster of Thames Bank.