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As the Russian invasion and occupation of Ukraine grind on, the leadership of one of the country’s most affected cities is already planning future rebuilding efforts after taking a special meeting with Norman Foster. Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov met with the architect Monday to discuss his vision... View full entry
If I enjoy doing what I do, why would I change it? Of course, at any point with any of us, there’s always the other side of the coin […] I get the same buzz from designing buildings, working with people, educational workshops, working with the UN heading their Forum of Mayors, engaging with civic leaders, writing, drawing, sketching. I’m privileged to have many such opportunities […] I think they’re my lifeblood, yes.” — The Guardian
Norman Foster, who will turn 87 this year, was at the Guggenheim Bilbao to talk to The Guardian’s Tim Lewis about his lifelong love of cars and upcoming exhibition there titled “Motion. Autos, Art, Architecture.” Foster told the writer he sees the exhibition as “almost like the requiem for... View full entry
Bacon’s Triptych 1986–7, which is scheduled to be sold with an estimate of £35 million to £55 million ($47.3 million to $74.3 million) on March 1 in the first of a series of high-stakes 20th- and 21st-century art auctions, is being sold by star architect Norman Foster, according to people familiar with the work. — Artnet News
The painting is one of 28 historical triptychs Bacon completed between 1944 and 1991. Past auctions have commanded prices as high as $84.6 million (£62.1 million) for similar works, including his masterpiece Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which caused a media sensation in 2013 after setting... View full entry
The architecture practice run by Sir Norman Foster almost doubled its profits as it expanded in the Middle East and gained new business despite pandemic lockdowns.
Total revenues fell by £33m to £200m in the year ending 30 April 2021, accounts for Foster + Partners, the practice’s main trading company, show. But profits before tax almost doubled to £36.2m during the year, compared with £19.8m in the previous year.
— The Guardian
New projects included a planned luxury tower development in Greece and a new tourist destination on an artificial island in the Red Sea (although notably, the Tulip Tower did come off the books due to environmental concerns). Foster himself is worth well into the nine-figure range and has... View full entry
Just in time for the holiday shopping season, a new list from therichest.com has ranked the world’s top ten architects in terms of their total net worth. Big A architecture remunerates extraordinarily well for some, with the total list’s net worth nearing three-quarters of a billion... View full entry
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... View full entry
Grafton Architects has been named by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) as the winner of this year’s Stirling Prize for the best new building in the UK. The Dublin-based firm won for its Town House multipurpose academic and arts space for Kingston University... View full entry
Foster + Partners, the largest architecture firm based in the United Kingdom, has announced a new partnership with a Canadian private family investment firm. The partnership with the Canadian firm, named Hennick & Company, sees the Hennick family now become the largest shareholder of Foster +... View full entry
Across the country, the average airport terminal is more than 40 years old and further challenged by the growth of air travel. Denver International, for example, opened in 1995 with capacity for 50 million fliers; in 2019, it handled more than 69 million. — The New York Times
Airports have been argued over by various names representing differing views from varied places in the architectural community. Norman Foster recently told Bloomberg he felt the impacts of air travel have to be considered in relation to other primary drivers of climate change. The movement to make... View full entry
I would argue that everything has a footprint, and in relative terms, the carbon footprint of air travel is relatively small. That does not mean it shouldn’t be addressed, but I do feel passionately that we have to address the infrastructure of mobility. — Bloomberg
Norman Foster's airport projects have drawn in an increasing amount of business for the 54-year-old firm in the last two decades. Foster went as far last year as to withdraw the firm from Architects Declare, the group his firm joined the year prior to promote a broader set of climate change... View full entry
The Norman Foster Foundation has released a new series of 14 masterclasses, titled “On Archives,” a follow-up of the “On Cities” series released in the Spring. This edition explores the fundamental aspects related to architectural archives and libraries around the world, with... View full entry
Titled "On Cities," a new series of twenty masterclasses was released by the Norman Foster Foundation this week. Each half-hour video features a leading expert in the fields of architecture, urbanism, economics, and mobility, aiming to promote cross-disciplinary and trans-geographic exchange... View full entry
One of the UK’s most famous architects has withdrawn from an environmental coalition in a dispute about the destructive role of aviation in the escalating climate crisis. [...]
The decision follows a row over Foster and Partners’ work on airports around the world – seen by critics as incompatible with tackling the climate and ecological emergency.
— The Guardian
Airport designs have been key projects in Foster + Partners' portfolio for years, with prominent recent commissions and competition entries in Saudi Arabia, Marseille, Chicago, Mexico City, and Beijing. Following Foster's decision to withdraw from his initial commitment, Architects Declare issued... View full entry
Predicting the future of cities is risky, especially if one heeds the words of the American baseball legend, Yogi Berra, that “the future ain’t what it used to be”.
In the period since the start of the pandemic it might seem as if everything is different, but in the long term, I would suggest that rather than changing anything, it has merely hastened and magnified trends that were already apparent before the virus struck.
— The Guardian
In his opinion piece for The Guardian, architect Norman Foster ponders how current and past pandemics have influenced and will continue to shape the infrastructure, and subsequently culture, of our cities. Foster briefly touches on a number of trendy topics, including electric vehicles, ride... View full entry
Architect Norman Foster is reviving a plan for creating expansive temporary facilities to be used by the parliament of the United Kingdom while the Palace of Westminster undergoes significant restoration.The £300 million proposal calls for a erecting an amorphous, 151-meter-long glass-wrapped... View full entry
