|
|
Norman Foster: The Man Who Reinvented the Skyscraper
| Article
# : |
15773 |
|
|
Section : |
THE ARTS
|
| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1989 |
2,364 Words |
| Author
: |
Kenneth Powell
|
The 1980s have seen a remarkable and very welcome growth in Britain of public interest in architecture. In 1970s, the British public showed every sign of a deep disillusionment with the achievements of the long-dominant Modern movement (and with the heroic, but ultimately flawed, rebuilding program that had begun in 1945). People looked at their rebuilt towns and cities--and sometimes they despaired. As a consequence, the preservation movement made rapid advances. Architecture itself came to terms with the past. The Post-Modernists and the New Classicists exploited the general desire for a comprehensible and expressive architecture. "Functionalism" seemed simply an irrelevance. Ornament, color, and--in short--pleasure resurfaced after decades of effective prohibition.
The British architectural scene is as rich and varied today as it has been for half a century. Each of the schools of design has its dogmatists, proclaiming the one true way forward. It would be all too easy to assume that Modernism is finally defunct--yet it refuses to lie down.
Surge of Modernism
Just as the preservation movement and Post-Modernism seemed to be triumphant, Modernism bounced back under the leadership of Richard Rogers and Norman Foster. Rogers' Pompidou Centre in Paris (completed in 1977) suggests that some British architects could fulfill their promise only outside the shores of Britain. When Rogers built on a large scale in London the Lloyd's Building at the heart of the City, the results were--and remain--profoundly controversial. The two men are inevitably linked in any discussion of contemporary British architecture--and both practice on an international stage. But for all the brilliance and wit of Rogers' work, it is Foster's, in my view, that most eloquently represents the Modernist strand in the British architecture of the late twentieth century.
Norman Foster was born in Manchester in 1935. He studied architecture at Manchester University and, subsequently, across the Atlantic at Yale, where the veteran Modernist Serge Chermayeff was among his tutors. His practice, Foster Associates, was established in London in 1967. For four years previously, Foster, and his architect wife, Wendy, had worked with Rogers in the Team 4 partnership. The most important result of this collaboration was the Reliance Controls factory at Swindon, an expanding town to the west of London.
Reliance Controls is a product of what has been called "the second machine age"--the period in which new electronics-based industries emerged, generally on "green field" sites away from the traditional industrial heartlands. The building is a classic shed, built of basic components (a steel frame with sheet metal panels) but distinguished by careful detailing and elegant proportions. It was the model for many similar structures--all too many of which fall seriously short of its sublime simplicity.
Foster was able to build on his experience with the Reliance Controls project in similar ones--for example, in his IBM offices in Hampshire and in the Renault Centre, also in Swindon. The latter building abandons cool simplicity, however, for flamboyant structural expression. The great yellow masts that support the roof have an exuberant, consciously decorative quality. There is a tension within the high-tech style--evident within Foster's own oeuvre.
...
Read Full Article
|
|
