Max Fordham

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.

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

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. 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

Core 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

Named customers12 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature6 records

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves12 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct 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

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/max-fordham-llp
• Instagraminstagram.com/maxfordhamllp
• Xx.com/MaxFordhamLLP

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles29 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Max Fordham