Piers Heath

Piers Heath is a senior partner and head of the Environmental Engineering team at Foster + Partners, providing strategy and design support across all projects.

He studied energy engineering at Southbank University and has gained experience across a broad spectrum of engineering disciplines working with some of the UK’s leading environmental consultants, including Arup, Brown & Root and Battle McCarthy. In 2005, he founded PHA Consult, pioneering a fresh approach to environmental engineering and sustainable design. Since the late 1990s he has collaborated on a wide variety of projects with Foster + Partners, including masterplans, offices, education buildings, spaces for culture and transport projects. In early 2011, he joined Foster + Partners to lead the new Environmental Engineering team at the practice.

He has devised innovative environmental strategies for projects around the world, including the Masdar Institute in Abu Dhabi – the first building of its kind to be powered entirely by renewable energy – and Spaceport America, the world’s first commercial spaceport. His investigations into the nature of tall buildings include the design of Jameson House in Vancouver which soars above two existing Art Deco buildings and Oceanwide in San Francisco.

The challenges presented by cultural buildings are of particular interest to him. In music venues, such as Zénith in St-Étienne and the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House in Dallas, there was a need for state-of-the-art performance facilities as well as a consideration of the environmental concerns presented by demanding climates and variety in building use. He also led his team on the Tocumen International Airport in Panama, and numerous retail stores for Apple around the world.

He has been a jury member on competitions and as director at PHA Consult received several awards for excellence in environmental engineering and sustainable design.