Practical Architecture
Practical Architecture

About Me

 
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I wanted to do arts and sciences at school but they wouldn’t let me. Then I wanted to simultaneously be an architect and an engineer but those professions are separated in the UK. And then I wanted to work for the best design firm in the world and I wanted to run my own business.

For the first half of my working life, I worked as a structural engineer for the global design firm, Arup. This enabled me to collaborate with many of the best architects in the UK and internationally. I worked in London, Hong Kong, and New York on high-profile projects that were large and technically challenging. Arup was my spiritual home for 15 years and I could have happily stayed for the rest of my career. But there were other things that interested me.

Initially, this led me to set up as a sole-practitioner architect carrying out small projects for private clients. A somewhat different world to the one to which I’d become accustomed. But a world that, nonetheless, provided constant challenges. If I didn’t know how to do something, I no longer had any specialist departments to call on. If I didn’t do the things that needed to be done, I no longer had a team to share the burden. 

Over time the workload increased and the practice developed in to what is now Raise Architects. We’re still relatively small but I remain ambitious to develop the business in scope and scale. My focus is on doing work that matters for clients that care. And I can’t do that without a great team. 

Projects

These are some of the projects which I worked on during the period 1988-2004. For projects since then please refer to the Raise Architects website.

 

CV

Andy Foster
ARB RIBA CEng MIStructE FRSA

  • 1979    University of Leeds, BSc (Hons) Civil Engineering

  • 1982    University of Liverpool, BA (Hons) Architecture

  • 1984    Architect Assistant, Building Design Partnership, Preston

  • 1985    University of Liverpool, BArch (Hons) Architecture

  • 1987    Architect Assistant, Chris Wilkinson Architects, London

  • 1988    Structural engineer, Anthony Hunt Associates, Cirencester

  • 1989    Structural engineer, Director, Arup, London, Hong Kong, New York

  • 2004    Architect, Director, Raise Architects (prev. Andy Foster Architects)