Max Fordham
Max Fordham is a UK-based, employee-owned building services engineering and sustainability consultancy founded in 1966, employing 250-plus engineers and designers across five offices and serving primarily cultural, heritage and educational institutions with MEP, Passivhaus, decarbonisation and building performance services.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1966
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Max Fordham does
Max Fordham LLP is a UK-based, employee-owned building services engineering and sustainability consultancy founded in London in 1966. It operates from five offices (London, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Manchester, Bristol) with more than 250 engineers, designers, consultants and business administrators, and is the first LLP to be formed in the UK construction industry (2001). The practice generates fee income through project-based professional services engagements, typically appointed directly by clients, architects and developers via tender or framework, with no public pricing and no disclosed revenue.
Its core technical offering covers the full internal-environment envelope of a building: mechanical and electrical (MEP) engineering, environmental design strategies (passive ventilation, daylighting, thermal performance), architectural lighting design, acoustics, wellbeing, utilities infrastructure, masterplanning advice, building performance monitoring and Soft Landings post-occupancy services. Adjacent sustainability and certification services include strategic sustainability, decarbonisation and retrofit advisory, net zero carbon, whole life and embodied carbon assessment, circular economy and material reuse strategies, BREEAM, NABERS, Passivhaus and building fabric performance. Multidisciplinary teams (combining engineers with physicists, biologists, historians and others) and dedicated directorates in sustainability, Passivhaus, acoustics, lighting and digital building performance modelling underpin delivery on complex heritage and cultural projects.
Max Fordham serves primarily the UK cultural/heritage and education segments, with secondary exposure to workspaces, sport and leisure, residential, science and technology, and selected international projects (Niger, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malawi, Zambia, Burkina Faso, Italy, Norway). Named clients span the National Portrait Gallery, all four Tate museums, the National Gallery (Project Domani), Natural History Museum, Royal Observatory Greenwich, Science and Industry Museum, Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and heritage assets such as Rochdale Town Hall. The practice's reputation is reinforced by a sustained awards record, including three CIBSE Building Performance Champion titles and RIBA National, Stirling Prize shortlistings and International Excellence awards, and by thought-leadership output such as the 2026 Beyond Net Zero whitepaper.
Max Fordham firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Max Fordham
- Legal name
- Max Fordham LLP
- Website
- https://maxfordham.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1966
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Short description
- Max Fordham is a UK-based, employee-owned building services engineering and sustainability consultancy founded in 1966, employing 250-plus engineers and designers across five offices and serving primarily cultural, heritage and educational institutions with MEP, Passivhaus, decarbonisation and building performance services.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Max Fordham is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices5 records
Markets served
Max Fordham business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Professional Engineering Consultancy Services: Fee-based professional services for building services engineering, sustainability consulting, and related technical advisory services. Revenue generated through project-based engagements with architects, developers, and building owners.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels5 records
Max Fordham product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Max Fordham is a building services engineering consultancy delivering MEP (mechanical, electrical and public health) engineering, environmental design, architectural lighting, acoustics, and sustainability services. The firm designs comfortable, low-energy, low-carbon buildings for new builds and retrofit projects across cultural, educational, heritage, residential and commercial sectors. Its portfolio spans Passivhaus design, BREEAM/NABERS assessment, whole-life carbon consulting, decarbonisation of existing estates, and post-occupancy building performance services.
Product overview
Max Fordham is a building services engineering firm offering MEP (mechanical and electrical engineering) services, sustainability consulting, and Passivhaus design. Their portfolio consists of integrated services covering everything that impacts the internal environment of a building and its performance—from traditional 'pipes and wires' of mechanical and electrical engineering to daylighting, acoustics, building physics, and strategic sustainability consultancy. The services span across environmental design strategies, MEP engineering, daylight and solar design, architectural lighting design, acoustics, wellbeing, utilities infrastructure, strategic sustainability, masterplanning advice, decarbonisation, net zero carbon, building performance, Passivhaus, NABERS, building fabric performance, whole life carbon and embodied carbon, circular economy and reuse strategies, and BREEAM assessments.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- MEP Engineering
Quantifiable outcome
- 25 wins across 14 projects at RIBA and RIAS Awards 2026
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Max Fordham
Customer profileNamed customers12 records
Segments7 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Max Fordham technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature6 records
Max Fordham partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators6 records
Recent moves12 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Max Fordham competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Cundall: Cundall is a multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy with strong sustainability and MEP capabilities and offices across the UK and internationally. It competes directly with Max Fordham on building services engineering and sustainability advisory mandates.
- Atelier Ten: Atelier Ten is a UK-headquartered building services and environmental design consultancy with deep sustainability expertise, including Passivhaus, BREEAM, and embodied carbon work. It is the closest direct competitor to Max Fordham in the specialist, sustainability-led MEP engineering niche serving cultural, heritage, and education clients.
- Buro Happold: Buro Happold is a global engineering consultancy offering MEP, sustainability, and structural engineering with strong cultural and heritage sector credentials. It directly competes with Max Fordham on UK cultural, education, and complex retrofit projects while operating at a larger international scale.
- Hoare Lea: Hoare Lea is a UK building services engineering consultancy with a comparable service portfolio (MEP, sustainability, lighting, acoustics) and a similar focus on cultural, commercial, and heritage projects. It is one of Max Fordham's most direct competitors in the UK market.
Broad incumbents
- BDP (Building Design Partnership): BDP is a major UK-headquartered interdisciplinary design practice integrating architecture, MEP engineering, and sustainability. It competes with Max Fordham on cultural, education, and healthcare projects where integrated design services are procured as a single appointment.
- Arup: Arup is a global engineering consultancy with deep MEP, sustainability, and building performance expertise spanning cultural, transport, energy, and infrastructure sectors. It is a much larger incumbent that competes with Max Fordham on major cultural and education projects but offers a far broader multidisciplinary portfolio.
- Ramboll: Ramboll is a global engineering, architecture, and sustainability consultancy with growing UK building services and decarbonisation capability. It is increasingly competing for sustainability-led retrofit and cultural-sector mandates similar to Max Fordham's.
- WSP: WSP is a global professional services consultancy providing MEP, sustainability, and building performance services across property, transport, and environment. It competes with Max Fordham at the larger end of UK cultural and commercial projects, with broader cross-sector reach.
- Mott MacDonald: Mott MacDonald is a global engineering consultancy with significant UK building services and sustainability advisory capability. It serves many of the same institutional and public-sector clients as Max Fordham, but across a much wider infrastructure and development portfolio.
- Sweco: Sweco is a European engineering and architecture consultancy with UK building services and sustainability teams. It competes with Max Fordham in commercial, education, and public-sector building projects across the UK.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Max Fordham social profiles
Digital presenceMax Fordham compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Max Fordham financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Max Fordham leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles29 records
Max Fordham funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Max Fordham M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Max Fordham
What does Max Fordham do?
Max Fordham is a building services engineering consultancy delivering MEP (mechanical, electrical and public health) engineering, environmental design, architectural lighting, acoustics, and sustainability services. The firm designs comfortable, low-energy, low-carbon buildings for new builds and retrofit projects across cultural, educational, heritage, residential and commercial sectors. Its portfolio spans Passivhaus design, BREEAM/NABERS assessment, whole-life carbon consulting, decarbonisation of existing estates, and post-occupancy building performance services.
Is Max Fordham a public or private company?
Max Fordham is a private company. It is classified as management employee owned and is currently operating.
When was Max Fordham founded?
Max Fordham was founded in 1966. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is Max Fordham based?
Max Fordham is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Max Fordham make money?
One revenue line is on record: professional Engineering Consultancy Services.
Who are Max Fordham's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Cundall, Atelier Ten, Buro Happold and Hoare Lea. Broad incumbents are BDP (Building Design Partnership), Arup, Ramboll, WSP, Mott MacDonald and Sweco.
Does Max Fordham have an API?
No public API is recorded for Max Fordham.