ARCHITECTURAL FIRM Foster+Partners has closed its Dublin office as part of a redundancy process worldwide.

The first sign that the Dublin office’s days were numbered came in a fax sent to management at the firm, calling for redundancies that very day, leaving staff in shock.

The Berlin and Istanbul branches of the starchitect’s firm, which had 17 offices worldwide, have also closed.

Just 12 per cent of Fosters work was in his home country, with the rest of the portfolio being spread around the world where the Foster brand was revered by starchitect-struck clients.

Projects in Ireland include a revamp of the Clarence Hotel, complete with flying-saucer roof, and the U2 Tower in Dublin’s docklands as well as a €280 million mixed-use, residential and commercial scheme on a 10-acre site beside Howth’s Dart station and a masterplan for a mixed-use development in Greystones, Co Wicklow, with residential, civic, educational, commercial and leisure facilities.

Staff in the London office of the practice, which is seeking around 400 redundancies from a workforce of 1,300, also got a shock the day after the practice announced strong profits, in February, when they too were told of job losses, in a letter explaining: “A number of our international clients have fallen victim to the current economic climate and as a result some of their projects have been delayed or cancelled.”

Does that include the Clarence and U2 Tower?