Norman Foster

Marc ÁlvarezLaia Pallarès

Sergio Ruiz

Biography• Norman Foster is a contemporary architect. He was born

in Manchester in 1935. He studied Architecture and Urbanism at Manchester University. After his degree, in

1961 he won the Henry Fellowship prize (Henry scholarship) for Yale’s University. At this university, he

did an master on architecture. In 1967 Norman and Wendy Foster founded The Foster Associates. Norman Foster worked with R. Buckminster Fuller in a series of projects between 1968 and 1983. 25 years later, in 1992 the Foster Associates changed their

name to Sir Norman Foster and Co., an international company that since their start, have won more than 60

prizes for their work, and 14 international contests about construction.

• . Currently they have offices in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Tokyo, and it has 180 architects, designers, model

builders.

• In 1983 Norman Foster won the Royal Gold Medal of Architecture and the year 1990 he became Sir

on the birthday celebration of the Queen. 

• In 1991 he won The Mies van de Rohe prize of European architecture, The Gold Medal of the

French academy of architecture and the title of doctor honoris causa by The London Royal

College of Art. Recently he won The Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize of The Arts and letters

Academy of New York. 

• Norman Foster is a member of The Royal Institute of British Architects, member of The Royal

Academy of Arts of London; honour member of The Bund Deutscher Architecten; member of The international Academy of Architects; he has got

the title of doctor honoris causa for the universities of Bath, East Anglia and Humberside and he has the prize of the Japanese Foundation of Design and the Kunst-preis of the Academie

der Kunst of Berlín. He is member of the Académie Royal of Belgique and member of the

Ordre d'Architectes Français. 

• Norman Foster has made conferences all over the world and he has taught architecture in the UK

and in the USA. Among his principal buildings is the centre

Sainsbury of Visual Arts of Norwich, the headquarters of The Hong Kong and Shangai

Banking Corporation in Hong Kong, the Sackler galleries in the Royal Academy of Arts of London,

the third international airport of London called Stansted, The Century tower of Tokyo, the

Collserola tower in Barcelona and the Art Street (art gallery and cultural centre of Nimes).

• There are new projects like King's Cross and Greenwich in London, in Nimes and Canes in

France, in Berlin, in Duisburg and in Lüdenscheid in Germany and in Rotterdam in The Netherlands.

• Among his buildings we can find the central office of Willis Faber and Dumas in Ipswich (England),

which has been awarded, and also has the Renault centre of Swindon.

• As new projects we have the new central venue of Commerzbank in Frankfurt, the new airport of

Chek Lap Kok in Hong Kong that is on a surface of 1248 hectares. It is the biggest project in the

world. And the Musée of the Prehistory in Gorges du Verdon, in France. There are building houses

in Corse, Germany, Japan and Paris.

His Works• The works of Sir Norman Foster and Partners are exhibited in London, New

York, Paris, Lyon, Tokyo, Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Venice and Milan.

Their works are represented in the permanent collection in the Modern Art

Museum of New York and at the centre of Georges Pompidou of Paris. An example is

the ‘Gherkin’.

Commerzbank

Torre Collserola

Commerzbank

‘Gherkin’

• This building is situated in the city of London. It was built by Norman Foster. The building

was the first building completely eco-friendly in London. It is an eco-friendly building that was made only with glass so that the Light

could pass. In this case Norman Foster tried to imitate the architect Antoni Gaudí trying to

obtain a harmony with nature, that in this case is his inspiration.

• The building has a pattern of a spiral of blue colour and the geometric lines in star forms that mark the start and the end of the glass.

• The principal lines of the building are the blue curve line that surrounds the building and the outline that also have a curved line. From the restaurant of the building you can watch all

the city of London.

• The subject of the work is clearly the light and the lines are distributed geometrically. The illumination is natural and there is a big harmony of colours where the blue colour

dominates.

• The building represents the sky at night and during the day, because in the morning the light is reflected on the façade and it is light blue. At night the lights inside are on and the

colour gets darker and you can also see the stars on the façade which represent the night sky.

• The roof has a width of 2,7m and is covered with a second layer of crystal that reaches the eighth floor.

• Another aspect to comment is the curve lines that the building presents. Also in the façade the geometric forms of

the cubism are clearly distinguished.

The ‘Gherkin’

Norman’s ideology

• We can relate Norman Foster to the modernism because in all of his works he tries to copy the modernist architects like

Antoni Gaudí or Domenec i Montaner. They try to keep a balance with nature and copy

it with their works, like Norman Foster does in the “Gherkin”. These modernist characteristics defined all the Norman Foster’s Works. It is exceptional in the

time that he lives (XXIc.) and he tries to do eco-friendly projects to stop the global

warming.