Norman Foster

Norman Foster is a prolific British architect known for his innovative, stylish structural designs, as seen with edifices like Berlin’s Reichstag, New York City’s Hearst Tower and London’s City Hall.

Norman Foster
Norman Foster

image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/cc4cb060-5907-406a-8e11-eb544926a4d9 by Andy Miah

About his life

Norman Fosterin full Lord Norman Foster of Thames Bank, original name in full Norman Robert Foster (born June 1, 1935, Manchester, England), is a British architect known for his sleek, modern buildings made of steel and glass.

The Albion Riverside Building
The Albion Riverside Building,2003 – London, UK

image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/e39d866b-8d8f-42e3-95f7-1f0a98bfef3b by Bods

Foster was trained at the University of Manchester (1956–61) in England and Yale University (1961–62) in New Haven, Connecticut. Beginning in 1963, he worked in partnership with Richard and Su Rogers and his wife, Wendy Foster, in a firm called Team 4. In 1967 he established his own firm called Foster Associates (later Foster + Partners).

IFC2, Hong Kong.
IFC2, Hong Kong

image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/c0794536-33de-41d0-8741-9414f1dbbd27 by stevecadman

What are Foster’s style main features ?

Foster’s earliest works explored the idea of a technologically advanced “shed,” meaning a structure surrounded by a lightweight shell or envelope.

Norman Foster's Gherkin
Norman Foster’s Gherkin

image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/c1cfc721-12e4-4b81-b52d-0a9d3e206a76 by Marek Bakajsa

Foster was one of the architects who turned things around by proving that to make good buildings, it would not be necessary to abandon the principles of Modernismclear structure, lucid forms—but simply to apply them with new rigor and imagination.

What are his most iconic buildings?

In the early 1970s, Foster had his big break with the design of the Willis Faber & Dumas headquarters in Ipswich, a low-rise office building that was innovative for its use of escalators, contoured facades and idyllic, nature-oriented interiors.
Willis Building
Willis Building, Ipswich

image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/fe4ef2fe-8a62-4861-ad5f-3faef42c1d73 by Adrian Cable

The late ‘70s and early-to-mid-‘80s saw Foster and his team working on the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation headquarters, a modern three-tower edifice, while the ‘90s saw the architect heading up an update of the Reichstag in Berlin, rebuilding the emblematic glass dome after the unification of East and West Germany. In the early 2000s, Foster also contributed to the iconic New York City skyline with his design of the Hearst Tower, a 44-story skyscraper with a triangulated facade atop an Art Deco foundation.
Hearst Tower
Hearst Tower (1928) & (2006)
image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/9e32bedd-0923-4a20-8e02-666f58c4af33 by andryn2006
 

Other important works

  • Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich
  • Kuala Lumpur’s Troika Towers
  • Frankfurt’s Commerzbank
  • Hong Kong International Airport
  • London’s City Hall and Millennium Bridge.
SkyPlaza at the Hong Kong International Airport
SkyPlaza at the Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 2

image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/c24fe05c-0109-4781-9df3-c16c912e3c90 by Mk2010

City Hall (GLA Building)
City Hall (GLA Building), London

image source: https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/b051fd3b-85c1-4110-baf4-c98e6f4067e7 by stevecadman


info source:

https://www.biography.com/people/norman-foster-38151

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lord-Norman-Foster

http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1647860_1647834_1644309,00.html

 https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lord-Norman-Foster

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