Foster and Partners was established in 1963
by Sir Norman Foster and his wife Wendy.
Since its inception the pratice has won scores of awards for design excellence
for projects ranging from private homes, conversions and commercial buildings to
designing street fixtures and even what is known as door furniture
-- its smallest project has been a door handle. In 1998, for the fourth
year in a row, the firm won the "Building" Architectural Practice of the Year Award,
earning praise for continued innovation in building technology and in
particular for energy-efficient design.
Among Foster's most well-known creations are the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank
building in Hong Kong, the international airport at Stansted -- London's
third airport -- Tokyo's Century Tower and the Commerzbank Headquarters
in Frankfurt, the world's tallest naturally ventilated skyscraper. Other major projects
currently under construction are the German parliament building the Reichstag in Berlin,
the Great Court of the British Museum and the Citibank headquarters in
London's Docklands area.
The largest construction project in the world, Hong Kong's new
international airport, with a Baggage Hall the size of Wembley
stadium, has just been completed by the Mott Consortium led by Mott Connell
and Foster and Partners with BAA plc. The terminal building itself,
with a lightweight steel roof incorporating
skylights and an all-glass cladding system to create vast open spaces,
will be the largest air terminal in the world.
Foster and Partners also designed the Valencia Congress Centre, a striking
new landmark on Spain's Mediterranean coast opening in July 1998. An
intelligent, highly functional meeting facility, its design celebrates
modernity, light and water. The opening is being marked by an international
conference on architecture and cities for the 21st century attended by
mayors, architects and urban planners, July 2-4 1998.
Sir Norman, born in 1935, studied architecture and city planning at
Manchester University and obtained a master's at Yale University. He has
received honorary degrees and fellowships from many universities and
institutions around the world, and was knighted in 1990. In November 1997
Queen Elizabeth II bestowed on him the Order of Merit, a special mark of
honour conferred on individuals of exceptional distinction.
Foster and Partnersis now led by Sir Norman and five partners,
Spencer de Grey, David Nelson, Graham Phillips, Ken Shuttleworth and Barry Cooke.
Foster himself remains closely involved in the design process, often
preferring the drawing board and sketchbook to the state-of-the-art
three-dimensional modelling, visualisation and rendering systems with which
the pratice has distinguished itself in the competitive world of architectural
design.
While Foster and Partners have reached pinnacles of artistic achievement in
architectural design, their success has rested chiefly on the ability to
confront tough commerical circumstances in which time and money -- far more
than architectural ideals -- have been the primary concerns. Cost and time
management has informed all aspects of design and implementation in a
complex, even mysterious, process entailing a close collaboration between
the client and a wide array of experts, all orchestrated by the architect.
Increasingly, the practice finds itself engaged in the business of
publication, generating books, reports, photomontages and exhibitions on a
regular basis.
