Tom Foster Architect

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
Qualifications

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
University of Bath
1st degree: BSc(Architecture)
1968 – 1974
We ‘Architects’ shared classes with the ‘Building Technologists’, intimately cloistered in the School’s Vanburgh mansion, with Building Science researchers in the basement.
In 1969 the School moved from the faded grandeur of Kings Weston House, Bristol to the efficiency of the University’s new Bath campus.
We were taught environmental/fabric technology in 1968, that only surfaced in the 80s and again in the 2000s, as energy crises drove autonomous and passive building design.
It was a ‘sandwich course’ – each year alternating 2 semesters in school with 6 months working in the building industry.
During these years, we threw off the dogmatic Modern Movement and began to truly design for Fitness for the new Purposes of the world emerging.
Today, ranked no.2 amongst University Schools of Architecture in UK.
"Tom is passionate about all that he does - he's a real find"
Victoria Whelan
Gloucestershire College of Art and Design (GCAD)
2nd degree: Bachelor of Architecture (BArch)
1977 - 1979
Not completed - this was the School of Architecture that collapsed!
PROFESSIONAL STATUS
PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY
Not for that reason, I also choose to not carry Professional Indemnity Insurance. Not because I lack the title ‘Architect’; the Indemnity Insurers would be happy to insure me.
It is a heavy cost, which has to be paid every year forever, otherwise any ongoing protection to clients vanishes immediately.
I rely instead on spending far more time than ‘normal’ on every project, personally taking care of every detail, to thoroughly get everything ‘right’. Consequently in my career I have never made any professional mistake that could have led to an Indemnity claim.
Some firms, employing junior staff and minimising hours spent, rely on Indemnity Insurance as a long-stop to any resultant errors or omissions that can’t be avoided.
Collaborator professionals such as Structural Engineer invariably carry Indemnity Insurance to cover the parts of the project for which they are responsible.
For the parts for which I am responsible, I have always simply ‘got it right’. It’s not that difficult, given experience, time and care on every project.
