Practice now employs more than 600 architects, 30 more than it did in 2025
Foster + Partners has retained its position at the top of Building Design’s sister title Building’s ranking of the UK’s top 50 architects.
The annual list ranks companies based on the number of chartered architects they employ, including multi-disciplinary businesses which employ other built environment disciplines.
Foster + Partners employs 607 architects, more than double the next entry on the list, and 30 more than it did last year. Its total UK chartered staff has also risen from 648 to 684.
BDP has risen from third to second, with 252 architects, despite employing 44 fewer than last year. The firm’s total UK chartered staff has fallen from 530 to 471 since the 2025 list.
Last year’s runner-up Mott MacDonald has plunged to ninth with only 145 chartered architects working at the firm in 2026 compared to 350 last year. The multi-disciplinary engineering consultant has increased its headcount in other disciplines, employing a total of 5,205 chartered staff in 2026 compared to 5,074 in 2025.
Another multi-disciplinary giant, AtkinsRéalis, has made its first entry on the list, coming in third place with 211 architects working at the firm this year out of a total chartered headcount of almost 14,000.
Practices which have risen up the ranks include Sheppard Robson, which has moved from sixth to fourth with 207 architects compared to 173 last year, and Purcell, which has taken sixth place with 179 architects compared to 161 in 2025 when it placed seventh.
Others which have fallen include fifth-placed AHMM, which was fourth in 2025, and Corstorphine & Wright, which has moved from fifth to seventh.
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