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[.] Any description of his work has got to be filled with superlatives:
The most expensive bank building of its time (the Hong Kong
and Shanghai Bank), the biggest airport so far (Chak Lap Kok,
Hong Kong), the highest building in Europe (Commerzbank Tower
Frankfurt), the highest bridge world-wide (Viaduc de Millau),
the most ambitious series of urban projects in London recently
(Millennium Bridge, Swiss Re Building, Canary Wharf Underground
Station), the highest amount of architectural projects world-wide,
and, finally, 269 awards and prizes, 270 including the present one.
This and a lot more of the same seems to be more than enough. [.]
[.] The virtues which are - at a closer look - obvious in [his] buildings
are not primarily architectural in a technical sense but they form
Lord Foster's architectural identity. Foster is seeking thoroughness
in his understanding of all that matters in his work. In many of
his projects psychology meets economics,
and sociology meets engineering,
and sometimes [.] history
meets everyday life. His architectural
mind not only stimulates dialogues between these fields. He bridges
the gaps between them by focussing all the expertise needed from
all these fields for each individual project. He wants to answer
the needs of all the parties involved in a sustainable way. He will
not move the pencil in his left unless he has fully understood his
task and his architectural freedom to fulfil it. His mind has to be
absolutely clear before he starts with his design. His historical
reconstructions are therefore unobtrusive, subtle and truthful. [.]
[.] He wants to do justice to his projects and not to architectural
ambition or narcissism. All those virtues comprehensively generate
the special qualities of his projects and his own identity as an
architect. [.] Lord Foster was not always praised for these virtues,
especially not by those of his critics who didn't even realize their
existence. His modesty and truthfulness were mistaken as evidence
for indecisiveness, changeability, pragmatism and insecurity. [.]
[.] Over the decades of his work some criticisms and misunderstandings
form intriguing bundles of contradictions. Some time in the
past Foster was, for example, blamed for high-tech architecture. It's
not quite clear what this label altogether means but apart from
this it is certainly true that his use of modern engineering deserves
the label 'high-tech'. [.]
[.] An especially telling example of incoherent assessment concern
Lord Foster's integration of political ideas into his design. His
democratic political ambition that the architecture of the Berlin
Reichstag, for example, should serve the public interest in transparent
political institutions met incredulity, sneers and reproaches,
especially among some of his fellow architects. Finally, almost a
decade later, after he rebuilt the Greater London Town Hall, Foster
was praised for the very same democratic ambition. One of the
weekly German journals said that Foster gave evidence that
democracy can gain immensely from architecture.There you are, and
the vast amount of daily visitors to the dome of the Berlin Reichstag
will probably agree. [.]
[.] Foster's architectural mind has always been in motion. He saw
the need for ecological solutions and tried to integrate daylight into
his buildings well before it became standard practice.The huge glass
roof across the Berlin Reichstag full of photovoltaic cells, which he
first proposed, was daring, too daring for the political majority. His
mind keeps moving as his use of wood for the Chesa Futura project
at St. Moritz shows. I only know of one other designer with similar
curiosity and inquisitiveness for new and sustainable solutions in
building, Otl Aicher. It is no surprise that he and Foster made a
unique team of close friends full of innovative ideas until Aicher's
death in 1991. Like Aicher, Foster is an intellectual who tries to
change the world with his ingenious use of a pencil. I once asked
Aicher what he thought about Foster. His account was brief and to
the point:"He is the best". [.]
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