Research Internships
Norman Foster Foundation Internship Programme 2019
Contents
Norman Foster Foundation
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Education and Research Programme
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Internship Programme 2019 Outline 9 Programme Activities
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Application 13
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Norman Foster Foundation
The Norman Foster Foundation promotes interdisciplinary thinking and research to help new generations anticipate the future. The first mission of the Norman Foster Foundation is to promote the importance of architecture, infrastructure and urbanism for the betterment of society. To this end, the second mission is to encourage new thinking and research across traditional boundaries to help younger generations anticipate the challenges of future change. In particular, it addresses those professionals who are concerned with the environment—architects, engineers, designers, urbanists, civic leaders, planners and artists. This is at the heart of a holistic approach to design and is ever more relevant as populations shift to cities. With the implications of climate change, robotics and artificial intelligence, sustainable design is not about fashion but about survival. The Foundation holds the Norman Foster Archive and Library, which provide a window into the larger narrative and history of our built environment through the work of Norman Foster. This is complemented and supported by drawings and models from other significant architects such as Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Charles and Ray Eames, Buckminster Fuller, Richard Rogers, Zaha Hadid, and Tadao Ando. Through its research initiatives and programmes, the Norman Foster Foundation encourages the transfer of advanced knowledge in a wide range of design fields. The Foundation’s educational initiatives are structured around research and workshops, fellowships and forums around the Foundation’s core objectives. The Norman Foster Foundation is based in Madrid and operates globally. The headquarters are located in a heritage-listed palace designed by the celebrated architect Joaquín Saldaña in 1912 for the Duke of Plasencia. The courtyard of the Foundation is the setting for the pavilion, a space displaying objects and audio visual materials of projects, places, people, sculptures and paintings that can inspire future visitors to the Foundation in the same way that they once inspired Norman Foster and his work.
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Education and Research
Objectives
The Norman Foster Foundation, together with other institutions and charitable individuals, provides a number of fellowships to help students, researchers, and professionals to widen their research scope and to help them pursue both their academic and professional goals. These positions not only offer the opportunities and advantages of professional research fellowships, but also allow students to benefit from the Foundation’s initiatives and to work alongside its team. - Norman Foster Foundation Travelling Scholarship - Norman Foster Foundation Scholarship at the Bartlett School of Architecture - Research Fellowships - Internships Aiming to engage with a wider spectrum of specialists with different backgrounds, the Norman Foster Foundation promotes diverse initiatives throughout the year, including workshops and think tanks where experts, professionals and students gather to discuss cutting-edge initiatives.
Education Initiatives
Workshops / Ateliers Digital X On Cities Urban Mobility Robotics
Think Tanks Archives
Public Debates Digital X On Cities Urban Mobility Robotics
Internship Programmes
Public Programme Architecture on Screen
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Internship Programme 2019
Outline
The Norman Foster Foundation Internships provide students with the opportunity to be part of the Foundation’s team. The goal of these internships is to encourage students to discover more about the mission and objectives of the Foundation and to extend their knowledge in different fields. Interns will participate in the activities developed by the Education and Research Units during the course of their stay. These include the following Education Initiatives and collaborations with the Norman Foster Foundation Archive: Workshops / Ateliers Public Debates Think Tanks and Public Programme Collaborations with other Institutions Archive Collaborations Visits Exhibitions Collections Inventory Online Archive Collections The development of these initiatives will include activities such as: research on current Workshop topics, Workshop planning and logistics development, support for Public Debates management, research and presentations on relevant architects and practitioners, research and update of Archive Collections, etc. The Norman Foster Foundation offers internships of 3 months or 6 months where interns will become part of the Norman Foster Foundation team, following their working schedule.
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Workshops / Ateliers
The Foundation organises workshops and ateliers following research topics that have major bearing on contemporary architectural practice and debate: Cities, following Digital X’s manifesto Cities without Infrastructure; Urban Mobility, focused on exploring the reintegration of monorails in the urban environment; and Robotics, challenging building materials with digital fabrication processes. Each workshop brings together international experts from diverse fields with granted scholars selected among the most brilliant young students around the world. Each workshop has a multidisciplinary approach focused on specific topics of current relevance that relate to the Foundation’s core objectives. A mentor is selected per workshop to guide the academic development throughout the week. The workshop consists of a series of seminars held by the academic body members to the ten granted scholars, followed by open discussions, working sessions, group reviews, cultural visits, and a final presentation to the workshop jury. The academic body comprises professionals who try to bring a multidisciplinary approach that allows scholars to broaden their perspectives and helps them think laterally. Scholars are asked to apply to an international open call with a question relating to the topic of the workshop and during the Workshop week they are asked to create proposals that challenge the topic of study.
Collaborations with other Institutions
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The Foundation continuously develops parallel programmes and initiatives in collaboration with other Educational and Cultural Institutions such as Yale University, Vitra, Politecnico di Milano and Escuela Arte 10, among others.
Public Debates
As a way of opening the discussion to the general public, debates are related to each workshop and atelier hosted at the Norman Foster Foundation. Members of the academic body are invited to give short keynote presentations on their area of expertise, followed by an open discussion around a specific topic. To bring these debates to a wider audience, there is always a live streaming session online.
Think Tanks and Public Programme
These include diverse initiatives such as 2018’s Archives Think Tank or Architecture On Screen Programme. During the Archives Think Tank professionals dedicated to managing graphic and historical archives in Spain were invited to share their experience in a series of twoday session seminars. Attendees deliberated on the role of archives as a resource for future generations and the diffusion of knowledge in a world where the excess of information is the new norm. On the occasion of the 15th Madrid Architecture Week, the Norman Foster Foundation presented Architecture on Screen, a cinema series commissioned by the Foundation for Sala Equis. The series opened with the screening of the documentary ‘How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster?’ along with a conversation between the director, Norberto López-Amado, the director of the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM), Manuel Blanco, and Estrella de Diego,writer and researcher, history of art professor at Universidad Complutense de Madrid and member of the Norman Foster Foundation’s advisory board.
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Archive Collaborations
Visits
Exhibitions
Internships within the Education and Research Units include participation in collaboration with Archive activities: The Norman Foster Foundation is open to students and researchers as well as to visitors from institutions all over the world by appointment. These visits encourage the spread of knowledge by guiding attendees across the many works of the archive collections, displayed through the interiors of the heritage-listed palace designed by the celebrated architect Joaquín Saldaña in 1912, and renovated by Norman Foster in 2015 as well as through the Pavilion, built and designed by Norman Foster with the team of the Foundation in 2017. As a means of disseminating knowledge, the Norman Foster Foundation participates continuously in exhibitions with works from the Foundation’s Archive Collection. The Norman Foster Foundation collaborates with design and art centres to bring together a selection of drawings, models, photographs, and artefacts. These contributions are carefully curated, with a focus on presenting specific works that can integrate and complement other pieces shown, in response to the themes of each exhibition.
Collections Inventory
The Archive’s holdings span chronologically from the 1950s to the present. The collection relates to works from Norman Foster’s student years at Manchester and Yale University; projects and proposals by the firms he founded (Team 4, Foster Associates, Sir Norman Foster and Partners and Foster + Partners); utopian proposals created with lifelong collaborators such as Buckminster Fuller; and projects developed by the Foundation itself.
Online Archive Collections
The Collections are groups of works that show a common interest, distinctive architectural feature, the participation of certain professionals who collaborated with Norman Foster, etc. They are comprised of items of different media together with a text describing the topic with an informative approach. They are open and easily accessible to the public through the Norman Foster Foundation Online Archive.
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Application
To apply for a 2019 internship at the Education and Research Units of the Norman Foster Foundation please submit the following: 1. Student Contact Information details Name: Surname(s): Date of Birth: Nationality: Email: 2. CV + Portfolio (Format: no more than 8 DIN-A4s) 3. Reference letters (At least 2, DIN-A4 format each) 4. Motivation letter with short biography with emphasis on your academic background
Terms and Conditions 1. The Selection Process is only open to students currently enrolled in an educational programme (Bachelor, Masters or PhD) with a background in architecture, art, design, engineering, humanities, social sciences, technology, or urban planning, 2. All contents must be in English and no bigger than 10MB 3. Only complete applications will be reviewed by the Selection Committee 4. For any questions please contact research@normanfosterfoundation.org 5. Contents Submission Email to: research@normanfosterfoundation.org Email title: “2019 Internship Application - NAME SURNAME, UNIVERSITY” 13
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For further information please contact: Norman Foster Foundation research@normanfosterfoundation.org
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