BDP usurps Fosters as UK’s biggest architect

Foster & Partners has been pushed into second place by BDP after a five year reign as the UK’s largest architectural firm according to the WA100, an international survey of the globe’s 100 largest firms carried out by Building’s sister publication Building Design.

Fosters dropped to 23^rd place in the 2025 global rankings from 20^th last year while BDP climbed from 23rd place last year to 21st this year thanks to an increase of 90 architects to 554.

Fosters reported a drop in the number of architects it employs from 544 to 515 in the WA100 survey, which was carried out last autumn. But it said it expected to recruit more than 50 architects in the coming year.

Last week, the firm announced it was leasing three floors in Battersea Power Station after running out of space at its existing headquarters nearby.

Fosters still trumps BDP by turnover, having reported an increase in turnover to £369m for 2024.

US practice Gensler retains the top spot in the overall rankings although the number of architects it employed dropped below 3,000, the milestone it broke through for the first time in 2023.

Second placed Arcadis also saw its numbers fall, although most firms in this year’s survey reported increasing the numbers of architects they employ. Overall, the top 100 firms increased the total number of architects employed by 13%.

> Also read: WA100 2025: The big list

Many architects reported that they weren’t intending to let any architects go in the coming year and that retaining and recruiting talented architects is one of their biggest challenges.

The survey also revealed little change in architects’ feelings about future work prospects compared to 2024, with 59% expecting growth.

Architects are most confident about growth in the Middle East with Saudi Arabia named as the best place to find work. The UK’s third largest placed firm, Zaha Hadid Architects, reported earlier this week that turnover in the Middle East had more than doubled in the year to 30 April 2024 to £27m, helping it boost profits by 38%.

The US was named as the place with the second best prospects for growth.

US architects were untroubled about the possibility of incoming president, Donald Trump, introducing blanket tariffs, saying that while it was a concern they expected any negative impacts to be balanced out by his pro-growth policies.

Optimism about growth in general was tempered by concerns about geopolitical instability with architects almost unanimously reporting the risks of conflict and macro-economic volatility as a risk to growth.

Architects were the least confident about Western Europe with just 40% of architects expecting growth in the region. On the flip side architects reported that they saw net zero as an opportunity rather than a threat with nearly 50% saying that Western Europe was the most advanced in promoting net zero buildings, more than double the Pacific Rim and China, the second most promising region for net zero.