Foster + partners

The University of Iowa Children’s Hospital was officially unveiled as the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital on Friday, 11 November led by Dr Jean Robillard, VP for Medical Affairs at the University of Iowa, and Ken Kates, CEO University of Iowa Healthcare. The new 50,000 square-metre (530,000-square-foot) children’s hospital focusses on making the often traumatic experience of being in a hospital more compassionate for young patients and their families. The hospital is the first phase of a larger masterplan by Foster + Partners, which will modernize the university’s healthcare campus and improve quality of care. The masterplan aims to stitch the campus together by revitalising the surrounding landscape and opening up t... More

Foster + Partners has been appointed to redevelop the iconic Snowdon Aviary at ZSL London Zoo. The Grade II* listed structure, designed by Cedric Price with Frank Newby and Lord Snowdon in 1962, was the first aviary in Britain that offered visitors a ‘walk-through’ experience, bringing them closer to the birds in their natural habitat. The structure will now be modernised and upgraded to provide a brand new walk-through home for the Zoo’s troop of colobus monkeys . ZSL London Zoo is an unusual microcosm of British architectural history. Since its earliest days, it has been a proud patron to many leading architects, and is today home to many notable works of architecture. Decimus Burton, who designed the Clock Tower and Giraffe House in... More

Located across Britain and abroad, Maggie’s Centres are conceived to provide a welcoming ‘home away from home’ – a place of refuge where people affected by cancer can find emotional and practical support. Inspired by the blueprint for a new type of care set out by Maggie Keswick Jencks, they place great value upon the power of architecture to lift the spirits and help in the process of therapy. The design of the Manchester centre aims to establish a domestic atmosphere in a garden setting and, appropriately, is first glimpsed at the end of a tree-lined street, a short walk from The Christie Hospital and its leading oncology unit. The building occupies a sunny site and is arranged over a single storey, keeping its profile low and reflecti... More

The new research and development centre for Hankook Tire was unveiled in Daejeon on Tuesday, 18 October. The new facility forms an integral part of Hankook Tire’s new vision for a corporate culture and brand, and the 96,328-square-metre R+D centre aims to attract the industry’s top talent, providing an inspirational place to work, with light filled offices, advanced laboratories and dynamic social spaces to nurture a culture of openness and innovation. Located in the heart of Asia’s ‘Silicon Valley’, the building is an expression Hankook Tire’s commitment to technology, quality and rigorous research. It lays emphasis on communication within the workplace, with central meeting pods for spontaneous team meetings. The centrepiece of the sta... More

The re-imagining of Apple Regent Street in London marks the continuing evolution of Apple, going beyond retail to create richer, more dynamic experiences for visitors. Its innovative design creates a relaxed environment, while incorporating Apple’s new features and services. The design is the result of a close collaboration between Apple’s teams led by Jonathan Ive, chief design officer and Angela Ahrendts, senior vice president of Retail and Foster + Partners. Regent Street is one of the most famous shopping streets in the world, and the site where Apple opened its first retail store in Europe in 2004. The new store occupies the same building, with the Grade II listed historic façade now restored and preserved. Built in 1898, the build... More

A Mapei system of flooring products has been specified as part of a major redevelopment at IWM London. Part of the Imperial War Museums, the historic museum has been transformed to mark the centenary of the First World War; the design– created by architects Foster + Partners - improves access, circulation, as well as creating new vistas to the park outside. Mapei’s high performance cementitious flooring system, Ultratop, was chosen to complement the exhibits and provide a low maintenance floor coupled with resistance to heavy pedestrian traffic. All works were co-ordinated by IWM’s Construction Managers, Lend Lease, and Mapei systems were installed by Polished Concrete Designs for ITC Concepts Ltd. The transformed IWM London includes new... More

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new country headquarters for Ferring Pharamceuticals A/S in Denmark was held today, attended by Henrik Zimino, Mayor of Tarnby; Frederik Paulsen, Chairman, and Marianne Kock, Managing Director, Ferring Pharmaceuticals A/S; and Grant Brooker, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners. The ceremony marked the start of construction of the 39,000 square-metre company offices which is set for completion in 2019. Located on the urban fringe of Copenhagen in Kastrup, the site occupies a pivotal waterfront position alongside the Øresund crossing between Copenhagen and Malmö, and is next to Copenhagen International Airport. Bordered by predominantly low-rise development, it affords fantastic views towards Malmö and the... More

The opening of Apple Union Square in San Francisco marks an important step in Apple’s continuous evolution, its purpose and its role in the local community to bring a richer experience beyond opportunistic retail. Its innovative design enables new levels of transparency, openness and civic generosity, incorporating Apple’s new features and services. Apple Union Square will be a model for future projects worldwide. The design is the result of a close collaboration between Apple’s teams led by Jonathan Ive, chief design officer and Angela Ahrendts, senior vice president of Retail and Online Stores and Foster + Partners. “This is an incredible site on Union Square and a chance to create a new public plaza. We have created the most insp... More

‘Craft + Manufacture: Industrial Design by Foster + Partners’ opened at The Aram Gallery in London yesterday. This is the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to industrial design work by Foster + Partners, reviewing a wide range of the practice’s work in this field over the past five decades. The exhibition, which runs until 2 July, gives an insight into the practice’s passion for the ‘making of things’, exploring its wide diversity, from door handles to wind turbines. The science, art and craft of making things, has been at the root of the practice’s work since its foundation in 1967. The collaborative nature of the design team pioneered by Norman Foster has always included engineers, environmental experts, graphic designers, indu... More

Zaha Hadid Architects has been selected to build the Sberbank Technopark at the Skolkovo Innovation Centre, Moscow, Russia. Considered to be Russia’s Silicon Valley, Skolkovo will be home to the laboratories and campuses of Russia’s fast developing IT, biomedical, energy, nuclear and space innovations. Established in 1841, Sberbank is the market leader of the Russian banking and economic circulatory system. At the forefront of process innovations and social responsibility, over 70% of Russia’s population rely on Sberbank’s services. The 131,000 square metre Sberbank Technopark will become the bank's cradle of IT innovations, accommodating the 10,000-12,000 people working in Sberbank’s information technology and marketing departments.... More

The opening of the Woo Building, a significant expansion of the Ceramics & Glass and Jewellery & Metal department, marks the completion of the RCA’s highly anticipated Battersea Campus, bringing all of the RCA's fine art programmes together at a single site for the first time in the institution's history. Seven years after winning the masterplan competition, the Woo Building completes Haworth Tompkins’ trio of buildings, which also include the Dyson and Sackler buildings. Along with Dyson and Sackler, the Woo Building completes Haworth Tompkins’ trio of buildings, which – with the earlier Sculpture Building – make up the Battersea campus. The Woo Building mirrors the factory-inspired Dyson, with a triple-height, glazed central hall a... More

London-based architecture practice AL_A, led by the Stirling Prize-winning architect Amanda Levete, has won an invited competition to design a new mosque in Abu Dhabi. The Mosque is part of the World Trade Center developed by Aldar Properties, one of the largest developers in the Middle East and North Africa region. The practice’s proposals see the new 2,000m2 mosque and park as an escape from the immediate context of the vertiginous steel and glass of the World Trade Center and provide a focal point of worship for its inhabitants. Ho-Yin Ng, Director of AL_A, said: “The Mosque is envisaged as a piece of the city, one that reflects the journey from the temporal to the spiritual. Set within a park, the mosque and the garden become o... More

The inaugural gala for the Norton Museum of Art was held today in West Palm Beach, Florida, celebrating its transformation by Foster + Partners. The renovation and expansion of the museum has added new galleries and much needed facilities for its visitors, while reinstating the axial arrangement and clarity of circulation of the original 1940’s building. Above all, the museum is no longer surrounded by car parking, but is the focus of an extensive, new sub-tropical garden displaying a magnificent collection of contemporary sculpture. The opening gala was attended by, amongst others, Executive Director Hope Alswang, friends of the museum Ken Griffin and Leonard Lauder, Norton trustees Ronnie Heyman and Gil Maurer, and Lord Foster.The Norton... More

Nissan and Foster + Partners reveal ‘Fuel Station of the Future’ concept at Geneva Motor Show Nissan and Foster + Partners today revealed a fully connected vision of the future of mobility at the 86th International Motor Show in Geneva. The landmark partnership, between the manufacturers of the world’s best-selling 100 percent electric vehicle and the leading international architecture, engineering and design studio, concluded that the Fuel Station of the Future could actually be the car itself. The need for a sustainable and innovative refuelling network is becoming vital as the market shifts toward alternative sources like electric power. According to the latest World Bank data, today, more than half (54%) of the world’s population... More