Norman Foster - iDesignWiki

Norman Foster is a prolific British architect known for his innovative, stylish structural designs, as seen with edifices like Berlin’s Reichstag, New York City’s Hearst Tower and London’s City Hall.

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About his life

Norman Foster,in fullLord Norman Foster of Thames Bank, original name in fullNorman Robert Foster（born June 1, 1935, Manchester, England), is aBritish architectknown for his sleek, modern buildings made ofsteelandglass.

The Albion Riverside Building,2003 – London, UK

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Foster was trained at theUniversity of Manchester（1956–61) in England andYale University（1961–62) in New Haven, Connecticut. Beginning in 1963, he worked in partnership withRichardandSu Rogersand his wife,Wendy Foster, in a firm calledTeam 4. In 1967 he established his own firm calledFoster Associates（later Foster + Partners).

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What are Foster’s style main features ?

Foster’s earliest works explored the idea of a technologically advanced “shed”,意思是一个结构一个轻量级的包围shell or envelope.

Norman Foster's Gherkin — Norman Foster’s Gherkin

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Foster was one of the architects who turned things around by proving that to make good buildings, it would not be necessary to abandon the principles ofModernism—clear structure,lucid forms—but simply to apply them with newrigorandimagination.

What are his most iconic buildings?

In the early 1970s, Foster had his big break with the design of theWillis Faber & Dumas headquartersin Ipswich, a low-rise office building that was innovative for its use of escalators, contoured facades and idyllic, nature-oriented interiors.

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The late ‘70s and early-to-mid-‘80s saw Foster and his team working on theHong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporationheadquarters, a modern three-tower edifice, while the ‘90s saw the architect heading up an update of theReichstagin Berlin, rebuilding the emblematic glass dome after the unification of East and West Germany. In the early 2000s, Foster also contributed to the iconic New York City skyline with his design of theHearst Tower, a 44-story skyscraper with a triangulated facade atop an Art Deco foundation.