Since its founding in 1967 by Norman Foster, Foster + Partners has served as a central protagonist in the evolution of high-tech architecture. The London-based studio established a vocabulary of lightweight structures, exposed systems, and rigorously engineered envelopes that would influence generations of practitioners.
Landmark projects such as Apple Park, Hearst Tower, and 30 St Mary Axe demonstrate the firm’s ability to merge architectural form with advanced material research and environmental strategy. Its global output, from residential interventions to museums, transport hubs, and headquarters, continues to test how architecture can negotiate scale, performance, and urban complexity in a rapidly transforming world.
Here are 10 upcoming projects from Foster + Partners that are expected to be completed in the coming years:
1. Laheq Island
Location: Red Sea Coast, Saudi Arabia
Completion Year: 2025
Foster + Partners, the designer of the first theme-focused project on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast, is transforming the 400-hectare Laheq Island into a luxurious, green community. Designed with the motto “Garden Forever,” the project preserves the island’s surroundings while creating new inland waterways and beaches, protecting the natural areas along its edges.
At the center of Laheq Island, an 800-meter-diameter development called “The Ring” encloses a magnificent lagoon and sandy beaches. The Ring, comprised of luxury apartments, two hotels, and a vibrant market, is a light wooden structure rising above the water, adorned with greenery, pergolas, and shaded areas. Other residential zones are located to the south, center, and north of the master plan, featuring large luxury waterfront villas. Laheq Island boasts over 740 new residences, complemented by state-of-the-art amenities such as a 115-boat marina, beach club, sailing and water sports schools, racquet club, fitness center, 18-hole golf course, and clubhouse.
2. Zayed National Museum
Location: Abu Dhabi, UAE
Completion Year: 2025
Designed by Foster + Partners and inspired by the enduring values of Abu Dhabi’s founding father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the Zayed National Museum is located at the heart of the Saadiyat Cultural District. Targeted for completion in 2025, the structure will showcase the history, culture, and recent social and economic transformation of the United Arab Emirates. By combining a highly efficient and contemporary form with elements of traditional Arab design and hospitality, Foster + Partners has designed a museum that is sustainable, welcoming, and culturally relevant to its location. Celebrating Sheikh Zayed’s legacy and commitment to nature, the museum features a landscaped garden based on his life story, physically connecting the museum to the shore.
The museum spaces are housed within a mound whose textured, faceted panels form an abstract representation of the UAE’s topography. Rising above this plinth are five aerodynamically shaped lightweight steel structures. Inspired by the Gulf’s rich tradition of falconry and referencing the region’s traditional climate-sensitive architecture, these towers’ peaked vents utilize negative pressure on the leeward side of the profile to expel hot air from the atrium.
Inspiration from the region’s tradition of discreet, carefully positioned openings that capture and direct intense sunlight, illuminating and enlivening these sculptural interiors. The color scheme for both interior and exterior spaces was chosen to complement the distinctive warm white tone of Saadiyat Island’s sand.
3. BWSC Residential Tower
Location: Philippines
Completion Year: 2026
Scheduled for completion in 2026, the BWSC Residential Tower, designed by Foster + Partners, integrates the city’s vernacular architecture and traditional veranda lifestyle into a modern high-rise lifestyle. The 45-story tower responds to the region’s intense weather conditions, mitigating high temperatures and humidity with passive design strategies. The generous roof overhangs provided for each apartment create shaded verandas that protect residents from Manila’s extreme weather conditions. Deeply recessed skylights reduce sky glare and allow daylight to penetrate deep into the units while minimizing façade areas exposed to direct solar heat. This enables natural thermal comfort during part of the year.
On the ground floor, the adjacent park’s greenery is expanded, providing a green and shaded area. Residents arrive at the BWSC Residential Tower via a tree-lined avenue, reaching a high landing point overlooking the park. This landing creates a sense of arrival and provides privacy and protection from the weather.
Each 550 m² apartment occupies an entire floor of the tower. A two-story retail building borders the site, providing shaded play areas for visitors. BWSC Residential Tower also offers residents amenities such as a pool, clubhouse, library, spa, and gym.
4. Safra National Bank
Location: Miami, USA
Completion Year: 2026
Built by Foster + Partners for Safra National Bank, the headquarters stands at 63 meters tall. Located on a prominent corner in Aventura and slated for completion in 2026, the tower is intended to be a part of the city’s vibrant metropolitan district. The building’s striking form, composed of two interlocking prisms that meet on the second floor, creates a sense of balance and creates eye-catching spaces at both the base and top.
The 11-meter-high entrance lobby, welcoming office workers and visitors, features comfortable seating areas where people can relax and socialize. The offset core and elevator lobby on the west side of the building provide access to highly optimized office floors that maximize the ocean views to the east. The tower’s apex houses the executive floor, client meeting rooms, boardrooms, executive offices, and a lounge area. The spacious roof terrace on the upper floor offers a seating and dining area with carefully landscaped views, while a horizontal louvred screen extending from the center protects guests from the sun.
5. The Edge
Location: Montevido, Uruguay
Completion Year: 2026
Designed by Foster + Partners in collaboration with Lean Architects and scheduled for completion in 2026, The Edge is a luxury residential project located in the Carrasco district. Stretching along Montevideo’s 60-meter coastline, the project comprises eight residential units, each wrapped around a circular glass-walled courtyard with unparalleled water views. Each apartment, with cross-ventilation and double-sided facades, is crowned by private rooftop gardens. A cast-glass-walled courtyard at the heart of the building intersects with the central apartments, bringing natural light and greenery directly into the living spaces. The Edge houses a pool, sauna, gym, and stairs leading to the courtyard on the basement level.
The building’s façade features white concrete, reflecting the pale tones of Carrasco’s sandy coastline. Terraces emphasize the horizontality of the low-rise building and provide private spaces where residents can enjoy the views.
6. Palm Flower
Location: Dubai, UAE
Completion Year: 2026
Palm Flower, the final plot of land built on a two-kilometer plot on the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, is a striking residential building planned to become one of the city’s most exclusive addresses. A raised landing, offering uninterrupted water views and creating a sense of arrival, leads residents to a double-height lobby. Private elevators located in the lobby provide access to the apartments spread across all floors. The expansive double-height living areas feature glazed façades that frame views of the sea and sky. Each apartment includes a mezzanine-level library and a private pool on every balcony.
In the basement, the rich, dark colors and materials used in the corridors and elevators create a dramatic contrast with the bright spaces at the tips of the building’s stone “petals.” The basement area, where residents can display their vehicle collection, is illuminated with individual lighting for each vehicle.
The dark stone water features along the edge of Palm Flower enhance reflections. The reflection of the building’s white “petals” on the water has become an integral part of the landscape design, which incorporates native plant species.
7. InnHub La Punt
Location: La Punt-Chamues-ch, Switzerland
Completion Year: 2027
InnHub La Punt, planned for completion in 2027 by Foster + Partners, is an innovation hub that aims to foster prosperity, create new jobs, and revitalize local crafts and products by connecting new visitors with locals. Based on the idea of a “third space” to create a space for collaboration and creativity, the 6,000 m² project comprises work and seminar spaces, sports facilities, retail stores, a restaurant, and an underground parking garage. The stores and public spaces are located along the main street, while more private spaces overlook the surrounding landscape and incorporate greenery into the area through a courtyard.
Acting as a catalyst for transformation by introducing innovative people and ideas into the valley, InnHub La Punt provides a space where residents, tourists, tech companies, start-ups, and universities can exchange ideas. Inspired by the region’s landscape and vernacular architecture, the protective wall encloses the site, blocking cold winds and providing a well-developed microclimate. The roof integrates renewable energy systems on sloped surfaces to prevent snow accumulation while allowing daylight to penetrate the building’s deepest areas. These energy-efficient systems, combined with photovoltaic panels, provide one-third of the building’s total energy requirements.
8. Kuwait International Airport
Location: Kuwait City, Kuwait
Completion Year: 2027
As the designer behind the plan to significantly increase the capacity of Kuwait International Airport and establish a new regional aviation hub in the Gulf, Foster + Partners draws inspiration from the region’s culture of hospitality and Kuwait’s tradition of welcoming visitors. The design, rooted in a sense of place, utilizes local forms and materials, responsive to the climate of one of the world’s hottest inhabited regions. In an elegant and memorable arrival sequence, the baggage claim area is surrounded by cooling water cascades. The design also introduces a new and grand landside arrival sequence from the south.
Designed to provide the highest level of passenger comfort, the terminal features a trefoil plan comprised of three symmetrical wings of departure gates. Each façade stretches 1.2 kilometres, and all extend from an impressive central space with a height of 25 metres. Balancing the expansive surroundings with a legible, human-scale design, Foster & Partners made minimal changes to Kuwait International Airport for simplicity and ease of use.
The building, housed under a single roof canopy, is also designed to facilitate orientation, accented by a glass aperture that filters sunlight and deflects direct sunlight. Inspired by the contrast between its fluid, organic form and the shape and movement of traditional dhow sails, the canopy extends to shade a large entrance plaza and is supported by tapering concrete columns.
9. BDO Unibank Inc. Campus
Location: Manila, Philippines
Completion Year: 2028
Designed to meet BDO Unibank’s current and future needs, the new headquarters, unlike the city’s typical air-conditioned high-rise office towers, was inspired by local architecture and designed with extreme sensitivity to the humid tropical climate. The campus integrates five separate urban sites into a single cohesive campus. Two high towers lightly touch the ground, creating a three-volume new public space sheltered from heavy rainfall and direct sunlight. The open ground is adorned with lush vegetation and various artworks to enrich the public space and enhance the city’s quality of life.
An elevated reception area provides access from the ground floor to the office towers and key podium areas, including the business centre, public museum, and cafeteria. A 3,000 m² meeting and event space enables the bank to engage with clients, while the new public museum hosts temporary exhibitions and displays the bank’s permanent art collection. The project’s social spaces feature expansive outdoor terraces offering panoramic views. An urban farm on the roof of the auditorium annex provides space for community events.
10. South Sabah Al-Ahmad Masterplan
Location: Southern Kuwait, Kuwait
Completion Year: 2040
Foster + Partners’ proposed master plan for South Sabah Al-Ahmad, located 80 kilometres south of Kuwait City, aims to transform the city into the urban center of the country’s southern subregion. Scheduled for completion in 2040, the project will house approximately 280,000 people and create 145,000 jobs in various sectors, including construction, medicine, manufacturing, and culture. The master plan also includes extensive green spaces and a multi-layered public transportation system that promotes prosperity and sustainability.
The city is organized around a central business district and surrounded by a ring of light industrial buildings, with ten clusters of neighbourhoods. The central district includes a sports stadium, a museum, a city university, and a large city park. Petal-like green spaces branching off from the city park extend between each neighbourhood, creating green urban connections throughout the master plan.
The smallest unit of the master plan consists of villa clusters arranged around a contemporary interpretation of a “farige.” These clusters combine to form community centres containing local parks and shops, childcare and kindergartens, and local mosques placed every 260 metres. Each collection of community centres forms a neighbourhood, incorporating healthcare facilities, children and youth centres, and schools. Inspired by the gentle forms of desert dunes, the masterplan offers a variety of housing types, including apartments and terraced houses, promoting high-density living and high standards of luxury.
Image credit: © Foster + Partners
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