Wembley Stadium, the Gherkin, the HSBC Building in Hong Kong, Chesa Futura in St. Moritz, and the Reichstag Dome in Berlin: all are large monuments which dominate the skylines of their respective towns and cities.
It is hard to believe that all these monoliths of modern architecture across the world have one man to thank for their design: Lord Norman Foster.
Lord Foster has arguably done more than anyone else to shape the cityscapes of the modern world. His development of high-tech architecture has made its mark from the financial districts of London to the heart of the Swiss Alps.
A man with a gift for drawing
Lord Foster was born in 1935 in the Lancashire town of Reddish. As he was growing up, he was inspired by his father, a machine painter, to pick up engineering, design and architecture. Upon completing his national service, he became an assistant to a local architecture firm.
It was here that he was given his first big break. After being asked to create a portfolio of drawings, his employers were so impressed that he was promoted to the drawing department. After education in Manchester and a special fellowship at Yale, in 1963, Foster returned to the UK and founded his first company.
After initially focusing on smaller minimalist buildings encased in glass – a hallmark of Foster’s architecture in later years – in 1967, Foster founded the company, which today is called Foster + Partners. From then on, Foster would go from strength to strength, completing projects across the world.
Foster and high-tech architecture
Foster is attributed with developing modernism and “high-tech architecture”, a movement with mostly British roots which incorporates industry and technology into building design. Utilising new advances and building materials, the style involves communicating the function and underlying structure of the building, both inside and out.
Foster’s style is easy to spot: a mixture of glass, steel, natural light and sustainable practices became his most often used brush strokes. There’s no surprise that he is often called the Master of Modernism.
Having first made his name in the 1970s with the design of the Willis Faber & Dumas building in Ipswich, a litany of major accomplishments followed. From the HSBC building in Hong Kong, the Millennium Tower in Japan and Apple Park in California, to the Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt and the Gherkin and Millennium Bridge in London.
His work was not restricted to office buildings and bridges, with Foster also responsible for the redesign of Stanstead Airport and the Reichstag Dome in Berlin. In all, Foster + Partners has designed well over 400 projects around the world, and continues to be at the cutting edge of modernist design and practice.
Foster and Switzerland
Though his works in the UK are self-evident, his influence on Switzerland has been more recent and nuanced. In 2004, Foster + Partners completed the Chesa Futura in St. Moritz, the company’s first major project in the country, itself a microcosm for the architectural style and aptitude with which Foster has earned his reputation.
Meaning “House of the Future” in Romansh, the apartment building was created using cutting-edge computer design and using wood as its core. It’s shingles, made of larch, respond naturally to weather and will not have to be replaced for a century. Its curved shape and raised design allow space for natural light while granting lower-level apartments a better view.
“Its form certainly made waves when it was proposed. But … as soon as it was completed, it became a pivotal and indispensable part of its immediate landscape. Its presence will influence everything that comes in its wake,” wrote the Financial Times after its completion.
Giving new life to the Dolder Grand
Alongside smaller projects in and around the Engadine, Foster was also responsible for the redesign of the Dolder Grand. The redesign completed in 2008 more than doubled the luxury city resort’s room offering, and the new sleek design provided a new suite of public rooms, including a new ballroom and new entrances.
In this project, Foster showed not just his innovation but respect for the building designs which have come before. Alongside the new sections, the design restored a key section of the hotel, adhering to the original red and ochre palette.
In all, Lord Foster will leave a monumental legacy to future generations, not just in the buildings he designed but in the ideas he promoted. It can be said that very few individuals can claim to have shaped the modern world, office and way of living quite like him.