Architect Foster Norman: biography, projects

In modern world town planning, architect Foster Norman is highly regarded as a classic of high-tech style. His architectural firm Foster and partners trust the most conceptual city-forming projects in countries on all continents. This citizen of Britain is the winner of the most prestigious awards in the world : Pritzker (the analogue of Nobel in terms of architecture) and the Imperial (the highest in Britain). Germany awarded him with its highest order in the field of culture "For Merit" for the project of modernization of its parliament. He, who created a number of projects for Moscow City, is also an honorary member of the Academy of Arts of the Russian Federation.

Foster Norman came to success solely due to his talent and dedication.

Start of work

He was a classic high-tech in 1935 in Manchester (Great Britain). The father of the future architect was a worker in an enterprise that produces steam turbines and generators. In view of the financial difficulties of the family, the 16-year-old boy was forced to leave school and get a job at the treasury of his native city. Norman's father dreamed of a career as an employee for his son. Besides basic work, young Foster also studied commercial law. However, office work did not entice the young guy at all.

Even then, inspired by the architecture of Manchester, Foster Norman began to draw sketches of invented buildings. One of the fellow clerks, once seeing these drawings, recommended him to do architecture professionally.

However, the implementation of the dream was preceded first by a one-year emergency service in the British Air Force, and then two years of various unskilled jobs: in a bakery, at a factory, in a furniture store. Having passed the interview, Foster Norman got a job in the contract department of the architectural agency as an assistant manager. In carrying out commercial work, he realized that in order to become an architect, education is necessary.

Education

The 21-year-old boy was allowed to take part in the competition for the corresponding faculty at Manchester University. However, the points scored were not enough to receive a grant, which gives the right to study for a public account.

Therefore, Foster Norman earned money in payment for studies, working for several hours a day as a baker, a salesman and even a security guard in a nightclub. But the education received in Britain does not fully satisfy the professional ambitions of the young architect. He is attracted by the architecture of overseas monsters-skyscrapers. Foster Norman is studying at American Yale University. Having finished it, the young specialist together with his friend and classmate Richard Rogers return to Britain, where they register the architectural workshop "Team 4".

The birth of high-tech

In their first works - the design of residential buildings that adorn the hilly relief of Cornwall, and the prestigious London apartments "Mews House" - there is a refined classical architecture.

Staying in creative search, seeking to develop the American architectural ideas of construction spatially, this young team created a new style of architecture - high-tech. And of course, architect Norman Foster formulated his own part of the conceptual ideas of the new direction. His projects of that period relate mainly to industrial buildings. The turning point in his creativity in the design of buildings was the 1966 project, developed for the Ryliens Controls computer factory.

The elegant harmony of the decision, restraint and elegance of the construction of this structure made the British talk about a new star in the field of architecture. In it the author creatively used the aesthetics of profiled metal, which performed not only the role of rigid diaphragms, but also original light reflectors, shining due to the inserted in them fluorescent tubes. This building was the last project of the "Team of Four", which was created in collaboration with Richard Rogers architect Norman Foster.

The photo of this creation convincingly testifies to the creativity of its designers, boldly using in the construction of previously unheard-of materials and constructions that invent the original interpretations of the space of internal volumes, creating simultaneously unique and ultramodern facades of buildings. This was not the work of artisans. The creation created by the architects spoke for itself: in the world architecture a new style was born - high-tech.

Your company, your ideas

Apparent for all was the revolution in the principles of building construction, which was initiated by Norman Foster. High-tech projects involve the replacement of traditional rack-and-beam structural systems with expressive large-span "floating" section structures. They are distinguished by the amazing mirror glazing of the facades and, of course, new principles in the layout of communications. Outwardly such architecture creates the illusion of surrealism.

In 1967, the architect founded his private firm Foster and Partners, where until 1983 (until the death of his companion) he works in partnership with the famous architect Buckminster Fuller. Foster's new partner became famous in architecture by creating his know-how: large-span light domes that cover large urban spaces and create opportunities for localization of separate multi-purpose spaces with an autonomous-maintained microclimate.

The high-tech, which gained great expressiveness due to the finish, emphasized by an elegant dome, found its expression in the London docks and the passenger station "Fred Olsen Center" (1967), in the building of the company "Willy Faber and Dyume" (Ipswich, 1974)

The next landmark building, which brought the architect world fame, was the Sainsbury Center, built in Eastern Britain in 1977 at the university. Foster's idea is to unite under one roof completely different premises: a museum, a restaurant, the university itself, a winter garden was a success.

Perhaps, from this time line the concept of an architectural company is changing. By orders of wealthy private investors begins to develop Norman Foster projects. The best 10 of them will be presented in this article. The buildings, in the creation of which he invested his talent and soul, are now an integral part of the urban landscape of many cities. So, let's start our virtual tour.

London: building-cucumber

Atypical architecture, which the Londoners themselves with a share of humor called "erotic cucumber" or "sexy cigar." However, much more often the forty-story building of the headquarters of the Swiss insurance company Swiss Re, by the way, one of the largest in the world, is called the "Gherkin". She did not violate, as it feared, the architectural appearance of the capital of Britain, ideally fitting into it. Thousands of office workers work here. Restaurants and bars are on the top floor of the creation of the British.

New York: Horst Tower

The media empire of Hearst Corporation in the city, which locals call the "big apple", also received a gift from Foster. The project of the architect assumed a creative refinement of the local long-term construction. In view of the great depression that began in the 1930s, the Americans froze, and then stopped the construction of the classical beam skyscraper, confining themselves to the laid foundation and lower floors.

Above them Norman Voster erected a glittering glass panels triangular ergonomic tower with giant windows of armored glass, in which today employees of famous publishers Cosmopoltan and Esquire are working. The architect's know-how lies in the ecological compatibility of the building: the natural air streams blowing it are used for its own ventilation, and the rainwater falling on the roof for the conditioning system and for watering the plants.

France: Viaduct Viyo bridge

This construction, exceeding the famous Eiffel Tower in height, replenished its Norman Foster projects (10 best). The photo of this bridge over the river Tarn, stretching from Southern France to Spain, reflects the uniqueness of the creative idea. The bridge between the states strikes the family with tall supports, kilometers of the road bed, with triple anti-corrosion coatings. It not only unloaded the A-75 route, suffering from permanent traffic jams, but also attracted many tourists, becoming a famous architectural landmark of France.

London: Wembley Stadium

The biggest stadium to date in the world, to the creation of a modern appearance, which Norman Foster put his hand to, received the first spectators in 2007. The legendary arena of the homeland of football in its modern guise takes up to 90 thousand spectators! The architect is elegantly warned of the possibility of a crush (usually occurring at the entrance and exit to stadiums.) People on the stands get by using escalators having a total length of 400 meters. The main feature of the project is an openwork arch 130 meters long, supporting the sliding roof of the sports facility. A glowing arch at night is visible from all corners of London.

Such a roof construction is important for lawn care. Thanks to the natural sunlight, proper care of the lawn of the stadium is achieved.

Germany. Berlin. Reichstag

In this building, without exaggeration, all visitors of Berlin aspire to get. The former Reichstag, which is now called the Bundestag, except for a historical sight, has turned into a miracle of high-tech. Winning in the 1990s, the competition for its reconstruction Norman Foster not only provided the building of the Federal Assembly (Bundestag) with a glass dome providing a 360-degree view of the city - the heart of Germany, but also fundamentally reshaped its internal volume. Under the unchanged external shell of the building, the architect created a unique high-tech internal environment. This is achieved with the help of modern panels and steel structures. Light natural stone and decorative concrete give the modern premises of the Bundestag a grand and ergonomic look.

Kazakhstan. Astana. "Khan Shatyr"

What do you think, which architect has erected the greatest tent in the world? The question is rhetorical. The building covers a gigantic area of 10 football fields. Its unique roof is deliberately framed in the form of a specific inclined cone. Its uniqueness is in asymmetry (the idea of the modernist style borrowed by the architect). Thousands of cables, rigidly fastening it, during the construction of the tower at the same time strengthened 650 industrial climbers. The very construction of the building was like a show!

Inside this worthy high-tech building is the largest shopping and entertainment center in Kazakhstan with dozens of restaurants, shops and supermarkets, clubs, cinemas.

However, the business card of Khan-Shatyr is a unique pool for the steppe, with a beach (in the sandy cover of which the famous white volcanic sand from the Maldives is used.)

Britannia. London. Stansted Airport

In designing this building, built 50 kilometers from London, Lord Foster was again original. He initially rejected all the classical canons for the construction of such structures. His main principle of creativity - a complex simplicity - again manifested itself fully. The unique mirror roof of the terminal, supported by a frame of pipe sections, contours reminiscent of inverted pyramids, protects those waiting from natural precipitation. To this canopy there is a modern airport building, resembling a huge glass high-tech cube.

Britannia. Boston. Museum of Fine Arts

The growing number of exhibits of this largest museum in Britain created a problem. The existing premises for their placement ceased to exist. Baron Foster clicked on to help. In this case, he did not make changes to the existing fixed assets of the museum, built a modern spacious four-story building, in which the entire exposition of American art moved. The problem of the premises for the museum was solved for many years.

Germany. Frankfurt. "Commerzbank-Tower"

For Frankfurt this building has architectural significance, similar to the Tower of London or the Eiffel Tower for Paris. Simply put, it's a business card of the city. A triangular unique skyscraper realized the concept of a European ecological building. Inside it, on a level of four floors, unique gardens are planted with a spiral: Mediterranean, North American, Asian. People staying in the building are in a unique high-tech environment.

Live the Future

Certainly, one of the most interesting architects of our time is Norman Foster. Projects, plans of the British maestro from architecture are ahead of time. He is an innovator and revolutionary in shaping the architectural appearance of megacities around the globe. The architectural company "Foster and Partners" is constantly building iconic and unique buildings in Europe, in the New World, in Asia. It is characteristic that after their erection they set the bar of the level of architecture, become points of development of modern construction of cities and regions.

He is a genius. Its structures are appropriate in various contexts: whether it is the modernization of a government building or the renovation of a production building, the construction of a conceptual shopping and entertainment complex or the target of a city infrastructure: a bridge or an airport.

To date, he has implemented projects in 22 countries. As the main manager of his successful company, Norman Foster plans many years ahead.

Projects in Russia are not its most profitable enterprise, however it is indicative. The matter is that, at first having decided on cooperation with the master, the government of Moscow further went by postponements of real embodiment of projects. This is a project of a skyscraper "Russia" 612 meters high in the Moscow International Business Center "Moscow City". This building in 118 floors, after its construction, would become the highest in Europe. Impressive volume of construction, which was planned for an area of 520.8 thousand square meters. The construction was started in 2007. However, already in the next of the project, the main investor, Shalva Chigirinsky, who was experiencing financial difficulties, was excluded. Then the company "Foster and partners" received a proposal to reduce the height of the building three times. The motivation was the limited funds of the Moscow government in the crisis. Then in March 2012 the planned height of the tower was set at 360 meters. And, finally, the project was completely abandoned. Today, in the construction area, a fundamentally different construction is being built.

Conclusion

Today he is considered the No. 1 architect in the world. His company employs 500 specialists on a permanent basis, and employs 100 more per year under the contract. The secret of the maestro's success from architecture is in personal creativity, as well as in the powerful core of his team, which includes people with a worldwide reputation: David Nelson and Spencer de Gray.

An immigrant from the working-class family was lucky to fully realize his enormous creative potential. He managed to convince Britain of the fidelity of his architectural ideas, and then the rest of the world. Architect Foster Norman actively implements the architectural style created by himself in the life of cities and countries. Despite the venerable age (Baron-architect of 80 years), he does not go into the shadows, continuing to outstrip all modern high-tech architects by rating.