Photo: Hufton+Crow

"Why not London?" I kept asking myself as I wandered round the spectacular opening reception of the spectacular HQ of the Norman Foster Foundation in Madrid. Housed in the former Turkish Embassy building designed by Joaquin Soldana in 1902 the foundation is a treasure trove of Normanalia - early drawings, models, sketches, huge renderings, personal artefacts, bicycle designs and cross country skis. Everything presented in museum-quality perfection. Each room overseen by a uniformed assistant who not only asked you politely not to take photos but also could provide a bi-lingual description of the works on show.

You come away in awe at the man's achievements and singlemindedness, a man who regularly wins the poll of the architect most admired by his peers, who has changed the face of cities around the world, who at 82 annually takes part in cross country skiing marathons and whose training regime is such that his time this year was an improvement of that of a decade ago; a man to whom a 100 mile a day bike tour is fun.

You meet the rich and the famous, Spanish aristocrats and city mayors as well as brilliant young Foster Foundation Scholars like Ethiopian/Australian Abel Faleke who has been studying informal settlements around the world and Charlie Palmer who researched cycling infrastructure in global cities.

At the Future is Now conference held in the 19th c Teatro Real to mark the opening of the Foundation a stellar line of speakers gave an upbeat view about the way that design and disruptive technology were dealing with the crisis of the world's exponentially expanding cities. Michael Bloomberg, Jonny Ive, Janette Sadik Khan, Alejandro Aravena and Christine Amanpour headed the bill. Matthias Koehler, Professor of Digital Fabrication at ETH in Zurich showed videos of robots and drones erecting structures and artists Olafur Eliasson and Cornelia Parker had a conversation about art and technology and the potential of graphene.

One of the stand out panellists was Mariana Mazzucato, Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. Mariana's book 'The Entrepreneurial State' describes how public investment in infrastructure and innovation provides the foundations for private sector growth and profitability.

Every technology, says Mazzucato, that makes the iPhone smart, has been developed as a result of research funded by the state. Her case is that the idea of the lazy state, promoted by neo-liberal economists, is a myth and we ignore the public sector contribution to innovation at our peril. It is a position that illuminated my concern at the location of the Foundation and the provenance of the work on display. London provided the infrastructure for the growth of the Foster practice; the benefits of the UK capital were set out in my last blog and in the NLA's Insight Study on London as a Global Design Capital. London provided an effective launch pad for Norman's global domination and, in turn, benefitted hugely from the practice's presence in reinforcing its role as a design and construction skills hub.

Perhaps, in selecting Madrid, Norman was once again displaying his characteristic far sightedness.

When I suggested to Foundation Trustee Ricky Burdett that London was the right home of the archive, he made the case for housing the Foundation well away from the Foster and Partners practice in order to maintain its independence from the commercial activities and aspirations of the working office and so that it is not seen as a promotional tool.

Also, it is clear that the Foundation generated a greater level of local political, academic and cultural support than might have been the case in London. Perhaps, in selecting Madrid, Norman was once again displaying his characteristic far sightedness. Although the location of the Foundation was planned long before the referendum in June 2016, as Britain cuts itself off from Europe, Madrid will be more open and connected to the sort of dialogue and learning that Norman plans to generate in this great archive of his life’s work.