NORMAN FOSTER AT CENTRE
POMPIDOU
May 10 – August 7, 2023 Galerie 1, level 6
Curator
Frédéric Migayrou, deputy director of the Musée national d’art moderne, chief
curator of the design and industrial prospective department
Covering
nearly two thousand two hundred square metres, the Centre Pompidou’s
retrospective exhibition dedicated to Norman Foster in Galerie 1 reviews the
different periods in the architect’s work and highlights his cutting-edge
creations, such as the headquarters of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking
Corporation (Hong Kong,1979-1986), the Carré d’Art (Nîmes, 1984-1993), Hong
Kong International Airport (1992-1998) and Apple Park (Cupertino, United
States, 2009-2017). The exhibition is designed by Norman Foster in
collaboration with Foster + Partners and the Norman Foster Foundation.
The layout
unfolds in the course of seven themes, Nature and Urbanity, Skin and Bones,
Vertical City, History and Tradition, Planning and Place, Networks and
Mobilities and Future perspectives. Drawings, sketches, original scale models
and dioramas, along with many videos, enable visitors to discover around 130
major projects. Welcoming visitors at the entrance to the exhibition, a drawing
gallery showcases items never seen before in France, consisting of drawings,
sketchbooks, sketches and photographs taken by the architect.Because they
constitute Norman Foster’s sources of inspiration and resonate with his
architecture, works by Fernand Léger, Constantin Brancusi, Umberto Boccioni and
Ai Wei Wei are also presented in the exhibition, along with industrial
creations, a glider and automobiles.
Any encounter
with the work of architect Norman Foster immediately conjures up what seems to
be his most striking projects, those that are synonymous with the image of a
city, a region or, more simply, have changed the shape of a site or the
configuration of a location or a square. Large airports, transport networks,
tall buildings, the headquarters of large companies, public buildings, major structures,
urban development programmes, museums… with several hundred projects studied or
completed throughout the world, Norman Foster has engaged with the full
complexity of the organisation of great industrial societies.
The Centre
Pompidou dedicates a major retrospective exhibition to the British architect in
the very building that was among the first manifestations of the «High Tech»
architectural trend of which Norman Foster is considered to be a leader. Foster
founded the Team 4 agency in London in 1963 with Wendy Cheesman and Richard
Rogers who, along with Renzo Piano, would be the architect of the Centre
Pompidou in 1977. In 1967 Foster founded his Foster Associates practice, which
became Foster and Partners in 1992.
Norman Foster
imposed the image of a practice that has preserved its identity as a global
agency always open to research and innovation, and which integrates all
technical, economic, social and environmental dimensions in its projects. A
broader understanding of the concept of environment as including nature and the
whole biosphere is a central preoccupation in his work. He identifies high
technology with a technosphere that monitors the destructive effects of the
industrial world with an economy that is compatible with life on earth. This
global concept combining the deployment of technologies with a comprehension of
the concept of environment is founded on the work of Richard Buckminster
Fuller, the American architect with whom Foster worked on various projects.
Thus, as early as the 1960s and 1970s, at a time when industrial society was
waking up to environmental challenges, Norman Foster participated in the
emergence of the ecological movement and its development in the course of more
contemporary projects.
https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/program/calendar/event/Lan1nnY
MAQUETTE DE RENDU 1979 - 1986
Dimensions: 100 x 80 x 80
cm
Echelle : 1/200
Dimensions Avec
Capot Plexiglas 140 x 82 x 82 cm
Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters, Hong Kong
TOUR HEARST, NEW YORK 2000 – 2006
THE VERTICAL
CITY TEXT BY NORMAN FOSTER
The
skyscraper is emblematic of the modern age city and is a reminder that the city
is arguably civilisation’s greatest invention. A vertical community, well
served by public transport, can be a model of sustainability especially when
compared with a sprawling low rise equivalent in a car dependent suburb. Our
own design history of towers is one of challenging convention. We were the
first to question the traditional tower, with its central core of mechanical
plant, circulation and structure, and instead to create open, stacked spaces,
flexible for change and with see-through views. Here, the ancillary services
were grouped alongside the working or living spaces. This led to a further
evolution with the first ever series of ‘breathing’ towers. In the quest to
reduce energy consumption and create a healthier and more desirable lifestyle,
we showed that a system of natural ventilation, moving large volumes of fresh
filtered air, could be part of a controlled internal climate. My tower design
in the Yale Master Class was prophetic in its elimination of the central core.
30 ST MARY
AXE, LONDRA 1997 – 2004
DÉTAIL DE STRUCTURE 1979 - 1986
Métal, Plastique et Plexiglas
Dimensions: 124 x 123 x 98 cm
Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters, Hong Kong
Frédéric Migayrou: Norman Foster, you
have worked on many types of programs, including airports, transportation
systems, museums and universities, and for each of them, the question of
locality is always present. What is the relationship between the global vision
of the architecture you develop, and the specificity of each project’s context
?
Norman Foster: Trends are global in cities. For example, the relationship between mobility and public space – whether it’s Seoul, Boston, or Madrid – the trends we are witnessing are the same. We are seeing road systems being either partly buried or diverted, and more space given over to people and nature. But what happens on the ground relates to the particular place; every city is different. It’s the same with an individual building. It has components which come from all over the world, but the way they come together responds to a specific brief. The challenge is to maximise the differences, rather than encouraging homogeneity. The answer is to encourage local DNA and culture, to be sensitive to them, and to have the best of both worlds. In short, each project should be of its place.
FM : How did this vision of
architectural and urban complexity first take shape? You often mention your
discovery of the technical complexities of locomotives and aircraft at a young
age through drawings in Eagle magazine, and also your exposure to Manchester’s
architecture, for instance the Barton Arcade and Alfred Waterhouse’s Town Hall,
or Owen Williams’s Daily Express Building. How was your original understanding
of architecture arrived at ?
NF : As a child, I was drawn to magazines and books which showed the cutting-edge technologies of the time, with drawings that revealed their inner components. When I made my first drawings at the Manchester School of Architecture, I chose not to restrict myself to just plans, sections and elevations, which are two-dimensional. I was also taking those buildings apart, seeing how they work and drawing them three-dimensionally. While my drawings have become more sophisticated, they still seek to explain the inner workings and systems of a building...
FM : After receiving your master’s
degree, you obtained a scholarship to study at Yale University in the United
States, where you met Richard Rogers. The influence of architects such as Louis
Kahn, Paul Rudolph and Serge Chermayeff was to prove decisive, as was your
discovery during a trip to California of new construction principles at the
Case Study Houses designed by Craig Ellwood and by Charles and Ray Eames, and
also in Ezra Ehrenkrantz’s School Construction Systems Development (SCSD).
NF: I think
influences can either be conscious or subconscious – and we’re all a product of
them. If I think about my first experience of going into the School of
Architecture, which was located in the Louis Kahn Building at Yale University
Art Gallery, I recall the famous picture of Kahn looking up at the diagrid
ceiling. That ceiling could never have happened without the pioneering work of
Richard Buckminster Fuller, one of my early mentors, whom I later went on to
work with on several projects during my early career. Another influence at that
time were the Case Study Houses, which had an extraordinary glamour to them.
They were quite utilitarian, using standard off-the-peg items, but these were
being put together to create beautiful architecture.
During the
early days of practice, our work on school systems owed a debtto the California
SCSD pioneered by Ezra Ehrenkrantz, which was only made possible because he had
been in the United Kingdom immediately after the Second World War, when schools
were being industrialised.
FM : Back in London, you formed Team 4
with Georgie Wolton, Wendy Cheesman, Su Brumwell and Richard Rogers, and your
first projects engaged closely with nature and light, often using brick as a
material. But with Reliance Controls – a factory for the electronics industry,
and Team 4’s final project – you used standard components such as beams and
metal panels, an approach that was closer to that of Ellwood and the Eameses.
NF : There is a very close link between Reliance Controls and the other inspirations that we’ve previously mentioned, such as Craig Ellwood, the Eameses, and in particular the Case Study Houses, with their sparse elegance achieved using materials from catalogues. Reliance Controls marked a transition in the way of looking at a building; it also marked a transition between the practice of Team 4 and the divergent practices that followed. We were all involved in Reliance, but it was particularly close to me. Idid every drawing on that building. If you look at the cut-through section, you can see the various layers and systems within. It was a way of thinking that was quite different from our other buildings. The other projects were more craft-based, although they too were influenced by Serge Chermayeff, Christopher Alexander, Atelier 5, row houses and high density. However, perhaps the project that has the clearest link to the future, both in personal terms and the practice that evolved from it, is the Skybreak House. It is essentially a microcosm, a deep-plan building with generous natural light that focuses on the view. I can certainly link what we did on that project to the work of Foster Associates.
FM: I would like to know about the
function of the studio during this period. Because through successive studios
we see a kind of development, and more and more they appear as a kind of
laboratory where you integrate technologies, and you experiment. Was the studio
like a laboratory ?
NF: There was interplay between the studio as a creative, experimental workplace and the projects of that time. When we established Foster Associates, we were challenging the norm for an architecture studio, which was typically in a Georgian house, shallow and compartmentalised, with small windows and individual offices – the opposite of what we were trying to do. At the time, architects would produce a design and then hand it to an engineer, who would make it stand up. In our studio, we were working in a non-linear way and looking at all the disciplines coming together – the idea of a round table, which still remains at the heart of our work. Around that table, we were simultaneously looking at a project in terms of its structure, its environmental systems and its costing – it was a systems way of thinking. Rather like the buildings that I’ve described, our studios are invariably deep spaces. The Great Portland Street studio was focused on the street, with large windows that broke down the barrier between the public outside and those who are working inside.
FM: The notion of ‘design systems’
accompanies all your work. You used Robert Propst’s Action Office system right
from the start – just one way in which you revolutionised the design of office
programs. If we refer to the notions of system and integration, what was your
understanding of these concepts at the time, and how were they decisive ?
NF: I would
say that it was the birth of something that has informed everything that we’ve
done since. It started way back at the Yale School of Architecture. When
presented with a project to design a tall tower, I asked the dean, Paul
Rudolph, if I could I work with an engineer. That was heresy – the idea of engaging
creatively with an engineer rather than designing as the maestro. For me, that
collaborative spirit was liberating and I felt more empowered as an architect.
Our studio environment is designed to encourage this way of thinking and break
down the barriers between the different disciplines. For example, a structure
can be designed in a way that allows you to thread the building services
through its voids. That goes against the traditional way of thinking, where you
conceive of the structure and then you suspend the ductwork below it. I believe
our approach produces buildings that perform better and are more joyful. If I
fast-forward to our Apple Park project, the concrete slabs incorporate small
bore pipes, which heat and cool them, as well as reinforcing bars which make
the building work structurally. The concrete is polished like a rare stone. The
end result is not only more beautiful, but a far more compact and
environmentally sustainable building.
FM: At a certain point, your interest
in systems thinking intersected with similar research by the famous architect
Richard Buckminster Fuller. When you met him, you formalised new concepts,
including that of the ‘envelope’ – the idea of achieving a maximum volume
within a reduced enclosure. This is how the two of you developed the Autonomous
House project. How did the notions of environment and system find a new
dimension through your collaboration with Buckminster Fuller ?
NF: I think the approach that we have developed and evolved – considering the building as an integration of various systems, structural, environmental, and so on – is a built version of Fuller’s philosophy of ‘doing more with less’. You’re certainly correct when you say that he brought a new awareness of volumetric importance. The idea of forms that can enclose the maximum volume with the minimum external wall plays a major role when it comes to sustainability. Foster Associates was born at the same time as the idea of ‘green architecture’, although that phrase was yet to be invented. You had Rachel Carson, who was drawing attention to the impact of pesticides on the planet’s ecosystems in her book Silent Spring. The Apollo astronauts captured that famous image, Earthrise, which made us all aware of the very thin protective layer around the planet. This was picked up by Buckminster Fuller in his book Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. You also had Cybernetics by Norbert Wiener, which had a significant impact during that period. Consciously or unconsciously, I think these happenings provided inspiration for a clarity and a level of performance in our architecture.
FM: In the past, you have mentioned
your systems approach, in which the constituent entities of a building are
broken down into separate systems that, when reassembled, create a whole that
is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s a way of thinking that relates to
the Aristotelian arguments adopted by Norbert Wiener in Cybernetics, as you
have mentioned. This holistic understanding is far removed from theories of
postmodernism that were around at that time. How did the Hongkong and Shanghai
Banking Corporation Headquarters and London Stansted Airport – two projects
that embody ideas and practices that can be found across your work – confirm
this holistic approach ?
NF: I think the arrival of postmodernism is really when fashion and style subvert design. Our approach, in terms of a building as an integration of systems, was all about interdependencies – you change one thing and it has a knock-on effect. What we were doing was certainly against the tide. At the time, I saw the essence of design not as fashion and style, but as a response to needs. You quoted two examples. In Hong Kong, we challenged the typical office building, taking the traditional central core out, fragmenting it and putting it on the sides of the floor plate. That was a revolution, in the same way that the second example, Stansted Airport, literally turned the model of an airport terminal at the time upside down. The prevailing model was an umbrella of structure, services, mechanical plant on the roof, big ducts moving air, and no natural light. We put all that heavy stuff under the floor and liberated the roof for sunlight and to save energy – to make the terminal a more exciting and beautiful experience. That was achieved through the process of listening, challenging, and then, in that instance, reinventing. It was a revolutionary move that was emulated by many others and became a standard model. Our subsequent aviation projects have been an evolutionary development of this idea rather than revolutionary, but are equally honourable.
FM: You have often been associated with
the high-tech movement. It’s an idea that you have dismissed, stating your
preference for a more structural vision, in which architecture corresponds to
the more measured ‘skin and bones’ principle evoked by Mies van der Rohe. The
technology must be adapted and eventually, through its efficiency, gradually
fade away, in keeping with the idea of ‘ephemeralisation’ put forward by
Buckminster Fuller. How would you define your conception of technology ?
NF: I think that technology is a means to social ends – to lift the spirits and protect you from the elements. In other words, not just to be comfortable but to create a lifestyle – something which is about delight. What you’re describing as ephemeralisation is a means to that end. It’s really dissolving the structure and the services, integrating them so that they visually evaporate. If you look at the Centre Pompidou by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, it makes a celebration of its services – you can see those service and structural elements on the outside. If you look at our Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, from the same period, you have a structure and all the services integrated into it. So, the structure is designed for the environmental performance, as well as the structural performance. The aim was to create a building which is healthy and breathing. I would say it is a personal approach, born out of the systems theory which was applied in other spheres at that time. Although my approach has evolved, the idea of ephemeralisation remains a constant to this day.
TRAFALGAR SQUARE, LONDRA 1995 – 2003
PLANNING AND
PLACES TEXT BY NORMAN FOSTER
Place making is related to the world of urban spaces – it is the infrastructure of streets, plazas, parks, bridges and connections – the urban glue that binds together the individual buildings and determines the DNA or identity of a town or city. Place is also the spirit, even if not spiritual by its origins. Infrastructure is at the heart of masterplanning and can generate, transform or reinvent a city or region. It can respond to crises from which, historically, cities have always emerged stronger. It can encourage the community of neighbourhoods and, by urban design interventions, show how small changes can deliver major environmental gains. Masterplanning can encourage the compact, sustainable, walkable and equitable city. It can bring nature and biodiversity, whether as a protective green belt, in parks, avenues of trees or dispersed through the urban fabric to beautify and to clean the air we breathe. As a student I analysed and documented some of the great European squares. Then, as now, I am as fascinated by the architecture of urban places, the outdoor rooms, as I am by the architecture of individual buildings.
APPLE PARK,
CUPERTINO 2009 – 2017
NATURE AND
URBANITY TEXT BY NORMAN FOSTER
These are two parallel worlds which intersect
creatively. We can preserve nature by building dense urban clusters, with
privacy ensured by design – the opposite of unsustainable urban sprawl. We can
blend with the landscape by digging into it or leaving it undisturbed, by
touching the ground lightly. By bringing nature into our cities and buildings
we can humanise spaces with greenery, views, fresh air and natural light – more
healthy, joyful and consuming less energy. The tree is a metaphor for the ideal
building. It breathes and responds to changes in the seasons. It is
inspirational as a cantilevered structure in harmony with nature. As a
self-sustaining ecosystem, it harvests water and solar energy, recycles waste
and absorbs carbon dioxide. These design principles date back to the nineteen
sixties. However, in the last decade they have been scientifically proved to
create environments which, compared to conventional practice, are more healthy
and with improved levels of human performance. What is good for our spirit can
also be good for the environment.
CARRÉ D’ART,
NIMES FRANCE 1984 – 1993
HISTORY AND TRADITION
TEXT BY NORMAN FOSTER
It has been said
that if you want to look far ahead to the future, first look far back to in
time. This advice applies to many of our historic projects where the designs
are rooted in a study of the past. Recycling an existing building, particularly
one of civic importance, is far more sustainable than building afresh. Historic
structures are typically marked by layers of growth – each of its own period –
and our approach has been to continue that pattern with a respectful imprint of
today, rather than a pastiche of the past. Tradition in architecture overlaps
with history and for me it is the vernacular or indigenous tradition – once
described as Architecture Without Architects. It fascinated me as a student and
led me to measure and draw a medieval barn and windmill. The vernacular
continues to inspire me as a design influence – not only in its forms but in
the use of materials and the environmental lessons of cooling and heating
before an age of cheap energy.
PLAN MASSE ET AXONOMÉTRIE FONCTIONNELLE 1999
Tirage Couleur Plastifié Sur Support Carton Plume
Dimensions: 84 x 141,5 x 0,5 cm
Echelle: 1/500
Don de Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 2000
PLAN DES NIVEAUX 1999
Tirage Noir et Blanc Plastifié Sur Support Carton Plume
Dimensions: 84 x 141,5 x 0,5 cm
Echelle: 1/500
Don de Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 2000
PANNEAU D’EXPRESSION LIBRE POUR LA PRÉSENTATION DU PROJET 1999
Tirage Noir/Blanc Avec Collages de Tirages Couleurs Sur Support Carton Plume
Dimensions: 84 x 141,5 x 0,5 cm
Echelle: 1/500
Don de Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 2000
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FAÇADES QUAI BRANLY ET RUE DE L’UNIVERSITÉ ET COUPE LONGITUDINALE ( VUE
VERS NORD ) 1999
Tirage Noir/Blanc Plastifié Sur Support Carton Plume
Dimensions: 84 x 141,5 x 0,5 cm
Echelle : 1/500
Don de Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, 2000
DRAWING
GALLERY TEXT BY NORMAN FOSTER
Sketching and drawing has been a way of life
for as long as I can remember. Someone said that, if you ask me a question,
then I will do you a sketch. The spontaneous concept sketch, which might seem
like a blinding flash of inspiration, is most likely borne out of a total
immersion in the many issues. For me, design starts with a sketch, continuing
as a tool of communication through the long process that follows in the studio,
factories and finally onto the building site. The drawing is a more
premeditated exercise and the cutaway sectional perspective, along with three
dimensional details that I favour, have their links to past influences. In 1975
I started the habit of carrying an A4 notebook for sketching and writing – a
selection of these are displayed in the central cabinets, surrounded by walls
devoted to personal drawings. A further cabinet contains back-lit
transparencies which I have captured with a camera and they chart some of the
diverse design influences over time
MAQUETTE DE RENDU 1980 - 1982
Plastique et Métal
Dimensions: 31 x 151 x 181,5 cm
Dimensions Avec Capot Plexiglas : 46 x 154 x
184,5 cm
Renault Distribution Centre, Swindon, Royaume-Uni
THE CENTRE POMPIDOU
"On the Piazza and
outside the usable volume, all public movement facilities have been
centrifuged. On the opposite side, all the technical equipment and pipelines
have been centrifuged. Each floor is thus completely free and it can be used
for all forms of cultural activities – both known and yet to be discovered.
Renzo Piano, architect, Centre Pompidou
Designed as an
"evolving spatial diagram" by architects Renzo Piano and Richard
Rogers, the architecture of the Centre Pompidou boasts a series of technical
characteristics that make it unique. Its originality comes first from the
flexible use of large interior plateaux of 7,500 m2 ,
each completely free, with an easily modifiable layout. Using steel (15,000
tons) and glass (11,000 m² of glass surface), the builders created a major
pioneering building back in the 70s, in a country more used at the time to
visions in concrete. The building of the Centre Pompidou, in its use of glass
and steel, is also heir to the great iron constructions of the Industrial Age,
from Paxton's Crystal Palace, but also futuristic in many ways. A prototype in
all respects, it lines up with the architectural utopias of Archigram and
Superstudio in the 60s.
The metal frame consists
of 14 portal frames supporting 13 transverse members, each spanning 48m and set
12.80m apart. Eight-meter-long, 10-tonne moulded steel members known as
"stirrup straps" are fixed to the posts at each level.
The 45-meter-long beams rest on these stirrup straps, which transfer the
loads to the posts and are balanced by tie beams anchored in stay plates. Each
storey is 7m high floor to floor. The glass and steel superstructure encloses
the large multipurpose spaces, which are designed to be fully modular and
adjustable to changing usages.
Colours have been used to
decorate the structure, using a "code" defined by the architects:
- blue for circulating air (air conditioning);
- yellow for circulating electricity;
- green for circulating water;
- red for circulating people (escalators and lifts).
The title of the
quarterly program magazine is a reference to this "color code" as a
symbol of the Centre Pompidou's multidisciplinary nature.
https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/The-Centre-Pompidou#591
SIEGE DE LA
HONG KONG AND SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION,
HONG KONG 1979 – 1986
SKIN AND
BONES TEXT BY NORMAN FOSTER
It was an
eminent critic who observed that all of our projects could be categorised as
either skin or bones depending on whether the dominant external expression was
of the smooth façade – the skin – or the skeleton of a supporting structure.
This figurative expression is not arbitrary, rather it is the outcome of
considering, in each case, the relationship between the separate systems of
structure, environmental services and external cladding. The selection of
projects to illustrate this theme is random - and from all of the other
categories. There are parallels between architecture, art and design. In a
medieval cathedral, the structure is the architecture,and the architecture is
the structure, as in several of our towers. Links can be drawn with the white
gridded structures of Sol LeWitt, and Fernand Léger’s construction workers in
their network of iron girders. The smooth aerodynamics of our skin projects
resonate with the streamlined forms of automobiles and sculptures by Boccioni
and Brancusi, and bear comparisons with the world of aviation – the streamlined
fabric of airships or the white composites of high performance sailplanes
PONT
MILLENIUM, LONDRA 1996 – 2000
HABITAT SUR LA LUNE 2012
FUTURES TEXT
BY NORMAN FOSTER
Futures
overlaps with Networks and Mobility but is projected ahead in time and space.
It anticipates a more autonomous world where clean energy sources are
abundantly available – free from transmission grids and mega power stations.
The Norman Foster Foundation is working on this concept with MIT’s Centre for
Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems. A similar trend is apparent in mobility with
autonomous self-driving systems. There are parallels with the recent revolution
in telecommunications as satellites and handheld devices have replaced
telephone exchanges and endless poles and cables in the landscape. Working with
the European Space Agency and NASA, we have explored Lunar and Martian
habitations. The dome-like structures have visual similarities with the system
of droneports that we proposed for rural Africa – both use the earth of their
locality as prime construction materials and all, literally, grow out of their
sites. The science fiction fantasies and inspirations of my youth are the
project realities of today.
HABITAT SUR MARS S. D.
VIADUC DE
MILLAU, MILLAU FRANCE 1993 – 2004
MAQUETTE D’ÉTUDE 1993 – 2004
Mousse de Polyuréthane
Dimensions: 46 x 132,5 x 42,5 cm
BRITISH
MUSEUM, LONDRA 1994 – 2000
QUEEN ALIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, AMMAN ( JORDANIA ) 2005 - 2013
NETWORKS AND
MOBILITY TEXT BY NORMAN FOSTER
Mobility of
people, goods and information needs physical infrastructure, whether down on
earth, aloft in space or on another planet. The growth in air travel, alongside
high-speed rail networks, has provided us with the opportunity to reinvent the
international terminal – to elevate it as the gateway to a nation, with all the
attendant symbolism – to open it up to the sky for delight as well as savings
of energy and maintenance. Bridges that connect riverbanks or plateaus in the
landscape also have an heroic and symbolic dimension, and have led us to
structural innovation in the pursuit of visual lightness and identity of place.
Even the digital world needs to come down to earth in the transmission tower
which offers similar scope for reinvention.
AÉROPORT
INTERNATIONAL DE HONG KONG, HONG KONG CHINA 1992 – 1998
NORMAN
FOSTER
Chairman + Founder
Norman Foster was born in Manchester. After graduating from Manchester
University School of Architecture and City Planning in 1961 he won a Henry
Fellowship to Yale University, where he was a fellow of Jonathan Edwards
College and gained a Master’s Degree in Architecture.
In 1963 he co-founded Team 4 and in 1967 he established Foster Associates,
now known as Foster + Partners. Founded in London, it is now a worldwide
practice, with project offices in more than twenty countries. Over the past
four decades the company has been responsible for a strikingly wide range of
work, from urban masterplans, public infrastructure, airports, civic and
cultural buildings, offices and workplaces to private houses and product
design. Since its inception, the practice has received 470 awards and citations
for excellence and has won more than 86 international and national
competitions.
Norman Foster was awarded the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture in 1983, the
Gold Medal for the French Academy of Architecture in 1991 and the American
Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1994. Also in 1994, he was appointed
Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Ministry of Culture inFrance.
In 1999 he became the twenty-first Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate; and in
2002 he was elected to the German Orden Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und
Künste and awarded the Praemium Imperiale. He was granted a Knighthood in the
Queen’s Birthday Honours List, 1990, and appointed by the Queen to the Order of
Merit in 1997. In 1999 he was honoured with a life peerage in the Queen’s
Birthday Honours List, taking the title Lord Foster of Thames Bank.
http://www.fosterandpartners.com/about-us/team/senior-executive-partners/norman-foster/
NORMAN
FOSTER PARTNER
THE WAY WE WORK
From the beginning, we have pioneered a sustainable approach to design,
through work that spans the spectrum from masterplans to furniture. Our
approach is sensitive to location and culture, often combining the latest
advances in building technology with techniques drawn from vernacular
tradition; and we harness the skills, enthusiasm and knowledge of integrated
design teams, clients and communities to create inspirational environments.
By working together creatively from the start of a project, architects and
engineers combine their knowledge to devise integrated, sustainable design
solutions. From appointment to completion, the design teams are supported by
numerous in-house disciplines, including project management and a construction
review panel. And to ensure consistency and personal service, the same core
team sees a project through from beginning to end. The design process is
reviewed regularly by the Design Board, and the practice is led by the
Partnership Board.
http://www.fosterandpartners.com/about-us/the-way-we-work/
DESIGN BOARD
The design of each project is reviewed regularly, both formally and
informally, under the direction of the Design Board, which is led by founder
and Chairman Norman Foster, Stefan Behling, Grant Brooker, Nigel Dancey,Spencer de Grey, Gerard Evenden, Luke Fox, Paul Kalkhoven,David Nelson and David Summerfield.
The Design Board has full responsibility for design within the office.
While its involvement is important in the early, conceptual design phases,
it ensures continuity and quality at every stage of a project, as well as
encouraging the sharing of expertise across the project teams. The Design Board
was created in the spirit of challenging and being challenged. It also plays an
important role in stimulating research, as well as in arranging
cross-disciplinary design workshops on various issues, such as urban design and
sustainability.
http://www.fosterandpartners.com/about-us/design-board/
TEAM
Ideas can flow more freely when architects, structural and environmental
engineers work together creatively from the beginning of a project. By doing
so, they can combine their knowledge, and learn from one another, to devise
sustainable, fully integrated design solutions. Alongside the architects and
engineers are the many specialist teams whose expertise underpins our approach.
Our commitment to research and development has allowed us to bring our
combined expertise to bear on an unprecedented range of projects around the
world. Although design work tends to be focused in London, Riverside is just
one of a network of offices that spans six continents and virtually every time
zone. The practice reflects this rich mix of cultural connections; the team is
young and cosmopolitan.
http://www.fosterandpartners.com/about-us/team/
