Norman Foster’s commentary on urbanism is in the news cycle once again after the architect made an appearance in Glasgow as part of this week’s United Nations COP26 climate summit. 

The comments roiled many in the social media universe, who pointed to Foster’s continued insistence on airport design and penchant for high-profile projects in oil economies that for many betray whatever claims the architect might make in regards to his own personal environmentalism. 

Foster was participating in a question-and-answer breakfast with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry for an audience of worldwide mayors moderated by Glasgow’s own city council leader Susan Aitken. 

Speaking with the former Secretary of State, Foster, who made waves recently after a terse appearance on Bloomberg Television in September in which the architect doubled down on his decision to withdraw from Architects Declare a scant 18 months after its founding, said that Covid has accelerated several already-ascendant trends such as biophilic design and pedestrianization. 

Foster spoke to the diplomacy of cities, saying that “cities learn from each other. I think there’s a very interesting overlap between the pandemic and the climate crisis. It’s forced us to reassess the balance between the global and the local. It’s made us aware of the benefits of globalization, and the importance of pooling resources.” 

“Historically,” he continued, “cities have always benefitted from crises. They’ve always built back better. I think that it’s magnified trends that are all already there. I think we’re rediscovering the benefits of a traditional city.” 

Foster then added that architects and urban planners “have the power to use foresight to design the cities of tomorrow, today. Global warming is a design issue: we have the ability, we have the brains, we have the technology. In that sense you are the architect of change.”

This stance presents a demarcation from previous comments made to The Guardian in 2015 in which he said he felt he “had no power” as an architect.

The role architects play in climate change has once again come under the microscope as a result of this year’s particularly momentous COP summit. Foster’s past commentary has been focused on outlining the facts around the matter, pointing to key proportionate statistics like the difference between Atlanta and London in terms of their carbon footprint. Readers will remember the manifesto Foster + Partners produced at the last COP summit, in which the firm reiterated its commitment to make projects that are “holistic and respectful of the needs of people and planet.”

Foster later answered Oslo’s governing mayor Raymond Johansen’s question by calling on the need for working classes to be integrated more into city planning efforts as the century progresses. Other prominent urban leaders were also in attendance. The complete two-hour discussion can be viewed below.