Bartosz Kaczmarek III RAF

The Architecture of Norman Foster

Research paper
for PNJA-writing
with David Knott
British are the nation of famous people. We all know a few world-wide respectable mu-
sicians, actors, writers, businessmen and sportsmen. Sean Connery, Ian Fleming, Mick
Jagger, David Beckham, these are the names familiar to a wide range of people all
around the world. Even though, Great Britain is capable to supply people of talents, it
rarely is the source of brilliant architects. And of this small set of talented constructors,
even less achieved global fame. And the one who did it on a grand scale is Sir Norman
Foster. He was born into a working-class family in Manchester in 1935, and ever since
displayed his construction talent (Pawley 1999: 14). In his professional life, he firstly
took up aviation, as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, and afterwards begun his construct-
ing period. His poor background gave him persistence and diligence which are essential
in architecture. Soon he became a promising student, and after graduation he started to
win architectural contests, among which the first big one was an IBM headquarters
(Pawley 1999: 15). As an architect and designer he work with living houses, office
buildings, bridges, conference centers, industrial buildings, sky scrapers and entertain-
ment malls, nevertheless his best known works are the cucumber-shaped Swiss Re
building in London, the new Hong Kong airport, the new Wembley Stadium in London
and the Millau Viaduct in France (http://www.fosterandpartners.com). Finese and grand
scale somewhat mix within his works to create some of the largest structures in the
world or some of the most delicate. But the feature most characteristic for Foster is his
constant concern over the user and the environment. Therefore he became the first
ecologically aware architect in history.
The architect with a style seen as very much that of the new millennium - clean,
unfettered and environmentally-aware thinks of a space in a building as not finite nor
static, being constantly on the move, from inside to outside, from one level to another
(Foster 1989b: 202). The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters in Hong Kong,
China is a perfect example of this philosophy brought to life. Structurally, the commer-
cial high rise is divided into three vertically distinct bays, held by suspension trusses
acting like suspension bridges (Pawley 1999: 75). The elimination of the central struc-
tural core enabled Foster to retain large column-free areas within the building, which al-
lows very flexible internal organization which enables to include a massive, fifty two-
meter-high atrium, functioning as a banking hall (Ching 1979: 56). In such a space the
occupants of nearby floors become neighbors, passing-by each other on the escalators.
The double-height zones separating office floors, which can function as conference

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rooms, cafeterias, small concert halls and social meeting places (Foster 1989b: 194) and
movable outside mirrors, reflecting the sun light to lit the banking hall, make the build-
ing an ideal working place, very spacious and commodious inside. The concern of how
does the building influence on people in a culture so oriented on the spiritual part of hu-
man nature can be seen even in the position of the main escalators, which have been ad-
justed to a special angle after consultation with a Feng Shui advisor (Forest
1989b: 198). As the designer himself says

Hong Kong is special in its mix of culture, climate and urban pace. The design is an at-
tempt to respond to these special qualities – for example the sunlight can be pulled into
the heart of the building; grillages to break down the scale into something more human;
or simultaneous translucency rather than transparency. The list is a long one (Foster
1989b: 197).

What occupies the mind of the architect after winning a contest for designing a
building is not only its influence on the people inside, but also on the environment out-
side. As a multi-award winning competitor and a symbol of modern British architecture,
(Lipoński 2005: 781) Foster wishes his buildings to be energy-efficient by exchanging
air conditioning and electric fans for the laws of physics with the help of advanced en-
gineering to do the ventilation. The perfect example is the Commerzbank Headquarters
building in Frankfurt, Germany. It has been the tallest building in Europe for six years
with a height of three hundred meters, and at the same time named the first ecological
skyscraper. (http://www.emporis.com/) The idea behind the project was simple – to let
nature to fuel the building, and that is why it runs on vegetable oil, almost completely
eliminating carbon dioxide emissions (BBC News). At the same time, arranging the
floors in a triangular shape with an empty center creates a giant atrium with a stack-ef-
fect ventilation (Pawley 1999: 171). What is more, every four floors there are winter
gardens in each corner, which provide the bank offices with fresh and humid air (March
1976: 306). The outer skin of the high rise remains closed, with the exception of a set of
dedicated intakes, which pull in a controlled amount of air. The people working inside
also take an esthetic advantage from this natural AC system, because each of the win-
dows overlooks either the city’s skyline or one of the inside gardens. The skyscraper is
an ancestor of the Hong Kong bank, and also the realization of ideas that had to be re-
jected. Due to technical and financial restrictions, the inside gardens had to be post-
poned for ten years until it was finally landscaped (Pawley 1999: 171). The eco-

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friendly attitude of both Sir Norman Foster and the country with the long rule of the
Green Party met once again, when the company Foster and Partners won a competition
to rebuild the German Parliament – Reichstag in Berlin.
After being heavily damaged during the Second World War, the democratic for-
um of Germany finally regained its splendor at the turn of the century. The edifice was
given a new glass cupola, and then has had its courtyards restored (Jodidio 2006: 130).
The new seat of government became a friendly place for visiting tourists and local cit-
izens, due to a public area with a restaurant and terraces as well as a skylight, through
which one can see the parliamentary process in the plenary chamber below
(http://www.fosterandpartners.com/). Not only did it earn the Germans’ respect, but also
pleased ecologists. The cupola serves both as an air intake and as a daylight chandelier
with a set of photovoltaic cells and mirrors to direct the sunlight down into the chamber.
(Pawley 1999: 230). The lower part of the building, on the other hand, serves as heat
generator using geothermal water, which significantly lowers the thermal gasses emis-
sion and energy consumption, even by 90 percents, or a free natural air conditioning
(http://www.fosterandpartners.com/). But the designer’s biggest achievement was to
combine the cutting-edge energy efficiency with the complex history of the German na-
tion and to add Reichstag a function of a living museum. The nineteenth-century interi-
ors were cleared from plaster, and now are a backgrounds for its exhibits - Soviet graf-
fiti painted in 1945 (http://www.fosterandpartners.com/). The refurbished Reichstag,
therefore, became something more than a parliament – it became an open public space,
a self-reliant building, enriching Berlin’s landscape and proudly bearing testimony of
German’s history. It became an imaginative landmark of Berlin and stands as a symbol
of the city.
Foster’s idea has been in public service for over fifty years with various projects
scattered all around the world, from the Californian Coast, to the far east of Hong Kong
(Foster 1989a: 10). The airports, high risers, bridges and commercial centers designed
by Norman Foster are still being awarded, and he himself was knighted for his architec-
tural achievements. Nevertheless, his constructions as well as the urban planning has re-
mained people and nature oriented. The three structures, Reichstag, Hongkong Bank
and Commerzbank Headquarters are just examples of how an architect can positively
influence the world we live in. Only if engineering and structuring are combined with
proper urban planning, can a person feel comfortable inside a building. Sir Norman

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Foster has worked out a solution to make buildings and structures which are as well en-
gineered as esthetically refined and people oriented. No matter how utopian it may
sound. The key is Foster’s understanding of people’s customs, likes and movement
while inside, the simple idea of not to crump everyone with concrete walls, but rather
surround one with open spaces and living plants, not in flowerpots, but by establishing
little oases inside the concrete jungle, which may start to be trendy nowadays, as well as
eco-friendliness, but Foster’s concern about the planet reaches back to the late 1970’s,
when he designed his first energy-efficient structures. Sir Norman Foster is a visionary,
an excellent engineer and interior designer. Each of his constructions brings freshness to
a skyline and harmonizes it. They retain their practical values as well. And that is a rare
ability even among the landscape shapers.

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 References

BBC News. 2000. “Norman Foster: building the future”.

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/742087.stm) (Date of access: 22 Mar. 2008).
Ching, Francis D. K. 1979. Architecture. Form, space & order. New York: Van Nostrand
Reinhold Company
Emporis. (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=commerzbanktower-frankfurt-ger-
many) (Date of access: 25 Mar. 2008).
Foster, Norman – Ian Lambot – Richard George Rogers. 1989a. Foster Associates:
buildings and projects. Vol 2. Hong Kong: Watermark.
Foster, Norman – Ian Lambot – Richard George Rogers. 1989b. Foster Associates:
buildings and projects. Vol 3. Hong Kong: Watermark.
Foster & Partners. (http://www.fosterandpartners.com/Projects/0686/Default.aspx)
(Date of access: 21 Apr. 2008)
Jodidio, Philip. 2006. Architecture now!. Cologne: Taschen.
Liposki, Wojciech. 2005. Dzieje kultury brytyjskiej. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo naukowe
PWN.
March, Lionel (ed.). 1976. The architecture of form. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Pawley, Martin. 1999. Norman Foster: a global architecture. London: Thames&Hud-
son.