Max Fordham 1933-2022
7th January 2022
UK: Building services engineering pioneer Max Fordham has died at the age of 88.
The British designer, engineer and pioneer of sustainable design and environmentally friendly engineering was the founder of building services engineering firm Max Fordham LLP.
He became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1984, received an OBE in 1994, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering[ in 1992 and an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1996. He served as president of CIBSE in 2001 and, in 2008, won the prestigious Prince Philip Design Award.
In a statement, CIBSE paid tribute to his huge contribution to building services engineering. “He will be greatly missed by the whole of the CIBSE community and beyond,” CIBSE said.
Fordham started as a development engineer at Weatherfoil Heating Systems in 1958, expanding his specialisation into all of the building services including ventilation and air conditioning. In 1961 he joined the Building Group (now Arup Associates), before leaving in 1966 to start his own practice.
