Commemorating five decades of architectural practice, Portfolio is a comprehensive publication capturing every project from Foster + Partners since the iconic office’s founding in 1967. Over 345 built works are chronologically logged, with drawings of unbuilt works appearing at the end of each decade. It is an intriguing project-based look at the evolution of a practice now seen as an early influencer of the green movement. A forward by Norman Foster as well as essays from respected architectural critic Peter Buchanan offer further insight into the practice.
Here, we take a look at five decades of work by Foster + Partners through the lens of five iconic projects - one from each decade of practice.
Willis Faber & Dumas, Ipswich, UK, 1975
Conceived before the oil crises of the mid-1970s, the headquarters for insurance company Willis Faber & Dumas was a pioneering example of energy-conscious design with its deep plan and insulating grass roof ensuring good overall thermal performance. Visually, it is perhaps most recognized for its solar-tinted glass curtain wall system, which was developed in collaboration with glazing manufacturer Pilkington
It addition to its technical and green credentials, the project also challenged commonly held ideas about office design at the time by introducing innovations such as escalators in a three-storey structure and social elements such as a swimming pool, roof-top garden and restaurant. The project also introduced the use of raised office floors, which are of course today commonplace.
Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters, Hong Kong, 1986
Designed to be ‘the best bank in the world,’ the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters was a statement of confidence during a sensitive period of the territory’s colonial history.
The building is articulated in a stepped profile of three individual towers, respectively twenty-nine, thirty-six and forty-four storeys high, which create floors of varying width and depth and allow for garden terraces. The mast structure allowed another radical move, pushing the service cores to the perimeter to create deep-plan floors around a ten-storey atrium. From the exterior plaza, escalators rise up through the glass underbelly of the banking hall, which was conceived as a ‘shop window for banking.’
Carré d’Art, Nîmes, France, 1993
A médiathèque in the French city of Nîmes, the Carré d’Art takes the form of a nine-storey structure, half of which is cut into the ground, keeping the building’s profile low in sympathy with the scale of the surrounding buildings, which include the Maison Carrée, a perfectly preserved Roman temple. At the heart of the plan is a glass-roofed atrium, with a cascading staircase, which references the courtyard vernacular of the region.
This space exploits the transparency and lightness of modern materials to allow daylight to permeate all floors. The lower levels house archive storage and a cinema. Above are two library floors, with art galleries on the upper two levels. A reception space on the uppermost floor opens out to a shaded café terrace overlooking a new public square.
Reichstag - New German Parliament, Berlin, Germany, 1999
Now a Berlin landmark the Reichstag as found by Foster + Partners was mutilated by war and insensitive rebuilding. The design is both subtle and dramatic, peeling away layers of the original fabric to reveal stonemason’s marks and Russian graffiti - scars of the past - while in the cupola introducing circular ramps that lead to an observation platform and roof level terrace restaurant. At the core is a ‘light sculptor’ that reflects horizon light down into the chamber, while a sun-shield tracks the path of the sun to block solar gain and glare. As night falls, this process is reversed – the cupola becomes a beacon on the skyline.
The building provides a model for sustainability by burning renewable bio-fuel – refined vegetable oil − in a cogenerator to produce electricity: a system that is far cleaner than burning fossil fuels. The result is a 94 per cent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Significantly, the building’s energy requirements are modest enough to allow it to produce more energy than it consumes.
Masdar Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE, 2014
Combining state-of-the-art technologies with planning principles of traditional Arab settlements, Masdar City is a 650-hectare desert community project that aims to be carbon neutral and zero waste.
A mixed-use, low-rise, high-density development, Masdar City is linked to neighbouring communities and the international airport by existing road and rail routes. The city itself will be the first modern community in the world to operate without fossil-fuelled vehicles at street level. With a maximum distance of 200 metres to the nearest rapid transport links and amenities, the city is designed to encourage walking, while its shaded streets and courtyards offer an attractive pedestrian environment, sheltered from climatic extremes. The land surrounding the city will contain wind and photovoltaic farms, research fields and plantations, allowing the community to be entirely energy self-sufficient.
