Norman Foster

Revision as of 15:49, 2 June 2017

Sir Norman Foster is a British architect famous for his prolific and innovative high-tech structural designs.

He is one of the world’s most celebrated architects, having received the 1983 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture and the 1999 Pritzker Prize. His firm Foster + Partners is one of the most high profile in the world, regularly winning commissions for prestigious global projects.

Foster was born in Manchester, England, in 1935. Having left school at 16, he worked in engineering as part of the Royal Air Force before studying architecture at the University of Manchester. His aptitude for draftwork led to him receiving a scholarship to Yale University’s School of Architecture, where he qualified with a Master’s in 1962.

While at Yale, Foster became close friends with Richard Rogers and, together with Su Rogers, Wendy Cheesman and Georgina Wolton, they formed the architectural organisation Team 4.

In 1967, Foster left Team 4 to establish Foster Associates, the precursor to what would become Foster + Partners. At this time, he also began a long period of collaboration with the iconic architect Buckminster Fuller, which continued until Fuller’s death in 1983.

Foster’s big break came with his design of the Willis Faber & Dumas headquarters in Ipswich. This was a low-rise office building that comprised several innovative features such as the use of escalators, contoured facades, nature-oriented interiors, and open plan office space before such a thing had become commonplace.

One of the first major public buildings to be designed by Foster was the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich, completed in 1978.

During the late-1970s and early-1980s, Foster and his team worked on the HSBC Main Building in Hong Kong (see image above), which would become one of his most recognisable projects.

In 1990, Foster’s design for the Terminal Building at London Stansted Airport was awarded the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture/Mies van der Rohe Award.

In the late-90s, Foster won the competition to design the Reichstag building in Berlin, with its iconic glass dome observation platform.

Foster completed perhaps his most famous building in 2003 - St. Mary the Axe, more popularly known as The Gherkin, which won the RIBA Stirling Prize.

Around the same time, Foster contributed to New York’s iconic skyline with the Hearst Tower, a 44-storey skyscraper with an Art Deco foundation topped with a triangulated façade.

In 2000, the Millennium Bridge over London’s River Thames was completed, although it would be closed for a further two years to correct an unexpected wobbling motion that led to it being dubbed the ‘wobbly bridge’.

In 2004, Foster collaborated with the engineer Michael Virlogeux to create the Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world. His central input was to present a modified version of Virlogeux’s original design which had been dismissed by local authorities as unfeasible.

Other notable projects include:

• Torre de Collserola, Barcelona (1991).
• Commerzbank Tower, Frankfurt (1997).
• Hong Kong International Airport (1998).
• Redevelopment of the Great Court, British Museum, London (1999).

• City Hall, London (2000).

• Sage Gateshead (2004).

• Wembley Stadium (2007).

Find out more

Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Architect.
• Buckminster Fuller.
• Erno Goldfinger.
• Frank Gehry.
• Frei Otto.
• High-tech architecture.
• Richard Rogers.
• The architectural profession.
• Zaha Hadid.