NORMAN FOSTER
Creation & Reinvention PRECEDENT REPORT Selvia Novita
“As an architect you design the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown� Norman Foster
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Sir Norman Foster
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famous British architect, Norman Foster acknowledged as one of the world’s great architects, is known for his remarkable buildings and urban projects which have transformed cityscapes, renewed transportation systems and restored city centres all over the world. Many of his work harmonises revolutionary modern redesigns of classic buildings and simplified new structures with his iconic signature. Although praised as the “hero of high-tech,” Norman Foster doesn’t enjoy that notion; he prefers to be called “A Modernist” yet still traditional. Many of his projects, aesthetically and technologically are based on ecology-conscious concepts that set new standards for the interaction of buildings with their environment. He uses structure to create space, with an attachment to technology that never goes beyond what is appropriate for the project. His architectural signature is a design that opens a building to the public, mindful of the environment, and saves money by using modern materials and advanced technology.
Foster was born in Manchester, England in 1935 and graduated from Manchester University School of Architecture and City Planning in 1961. He earned his Master’s Degree in Architecture at Yale University. Foster Associates was founded in 1967 and is now known as Foster and Partners. This innovative firm was noted for its dedication to architectural detail and craftsmanship. In 1999, he was honoured with a life title in the queen’s birthday honour list becoming the little Lord Foster of Thames Bank. Norman Foster became an awardwining and prolific British architect known for sleek, modern design of steel and glass. He inspired many new designers with his spectacular designs all over the world. It’s fascinating to comprehend the philosophy behind each design, as every building has their own history; history that inspires people. It’s inspiring to see the past and move on to create something new, combine it as one as part of restoration of the history. In this article we will discuss three buildings that have been results of reinvention between the old and new architecture by Sir Norman Foster.
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Lobby on the First Floora
Sackler Galleries, Royal Academy of Arts London, England, 1991
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he Royal Academy of Arts is an art independent institution, founded in 1768 by Sir Joshua Reynolds with a mission of encouraging artists and promoting interest in arts of design through education and exhibition. It is here that Norman Foster completed his first renewal-renovation project and obtained his first opportunity to work within a historical building. This project consists of two buildings, the original 1666 house converted by Lord Burlington in the 18th century, and the Victorian galleries behind. The project brief required the replacement of the undistinguished nineteenthcentury Diploma Galleries at the top of Burlington House and the improvement of access routes throughout the building, also on top of Burlington house had always been underused because of the difficult access. To solve the problem in this project, Norman Foster proposed the idea to insert a new elevator and staircase between those two historic building, the original garden elevation of Burlington House and the main gallery extension.
Ground Floor Plan
First Floor Plan
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During this process they revealed the original garden facade of the 1666 for the first time in a hundred years, and on the other, the facade of the Victorian galleries. With a glass stair and a glass elevator insert in using modern materials between the building gives a new contrast yet harmonising in between those two historic building, not only that it also allows a new rediscovery to find an accessible pathway to discover this historic building. After the Diploma Galleries has been rebuilt and renamed, it was renamed as the Sackler Galleries. The rediscovery of the lightwell between Burlington house and Victorian extension, into which a new lift and staircase inserted, was the key solution of this project. Using modern materials, its gives a new spirit to this historical reclamation. The detailed of modern material simultaneously assert itself remaining completely respectful with the historic building. As an addition, the amazing permanent installation in the glazed atrium of Michelangelo’s Taddei Tondo added the artistic value into this new reinvention building.
Left: Sackler galleries built over the gap Right: New staircase in the Burlington building
Axonometric Sketch
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The Great Court, British Museum London, England, 2000
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ritish Museum known as one of the world’s oldest museum, was established in 1753 largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane, and is dedicated to human history and culture. It was opened to the public for the first time on 15 January 1759 in Montagu House in Bloomsbury. Its enormous collection includes millions of objects, which can be viewed by the public at any time. Other than being known as a national museum, the space was also used as a national library in the same building until 1997 before the British library moves on the new site. The courtyard at the centre of the British Museum has become one of the most visited attractions for tourist visit. Originally, the courtyard was intended to be a garden - the heart of the museum - as designed by Robert Smirke. However in the mid-nineteenth century, the courtyard occupied as the Reading Room and a number of book stacks were built. Since then this space has been known as one of London long-lost space, like “it was a city without a park”. Until in 1997, the Museum’s library was relocated to the new building in St Pancras and there was an opportunity to reopen the space to public, to create to long-lost garden. Competitions were held to reinvent the lost space with three main points: Revealing hidden space, revising old spaces, and creating new spaces. Known as one of tourist attraction, over five million visitors annually visited the British Museum, as popular as the Louvre or the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Great Court, British Museum, View from the top
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View Great Court with double staircase
Norman Foster was chosen to redevelop of this courtyard in 1994. The great courtyard was beautifully designed as a new public inner great courtyard with two double staircases around the reading room leads up to the upper-floor galleries. The surrounding wall was roofed using a new glazed lightweight steel frame material to maximize the day lighting. In the upper floor, bookshop, a restaurant and a café are located to create a new public space allowing visitors to enjoy the harmonizing structure between old and new architecture. Furthermore, Norman Foster has a signature to use glazed canopy lightweight steel frame material as part of his design, makes all this possible a mixture of advanced engineering and economy of form. The canopy creates a unique and modern geometry is designed to extent the irregular gap between the Reading Room and the courtyard facades. Other than for natural day lighting, the roof is also designed to use energy for climate control. The intention is not to control the entire space, but only the space that is occupied by people. This reinvention – redevelopment project, is like a city in another sense in its composition the design of different eras and styles, giving people a variety of experiences that encourage exploration. British Museum is one of a family of historical buildings in which contemporary architectural interventions have been made. In each case the new reveals something fresh about the old. The Great Court is both a new organizational hub and the catalyst for the museum’s reinvigoration. 6
The Reichstag, View at night
New German Parliament, Reichstag
Berlin, Germany, 1999
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he New German Parliament in Berlin, Reichstag known as one of the most prestigious architectures in the world. Originally Paul Wallot designed it in 1884, in 1954 Reichstag lost its 76-meter high dome first caught by fire and then by the war in World War II. A while after that, Reichstag remained empty until the government invited architects from all around the world to participate in design competition for the new Reichstag in 1993. Norman Foster won this competition to reinvent the design the new Reichstag against De Brujin and Santiago Calatrava. Clearly, this is not his first project on reinvention- renovation, as proven with his remarkable reinvention projects; Sackler Galleries in RCA London and The Great Courtyard in British Museum London. His idea on this project is more symbolic than his previous projects and for a considerable enlargement to the original building to accommodate a podium for public forum.
Foster’s sketch of the new dome
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Rewind back the history of German history building from the political history in both the cradle and grave of Germany democracy, Norman Foster emphasized on making the German Parliament more transparent with the reunification of Germany. Symbolically, they also want to create the building as a living museum of its own history, they preserved all the broken wall, burnt wood and the gravity left behind by the Red Army in 1945. Known as a modern architect, at first his design was rejected because of cost constraints in designing this new dome. This project was required to reflect the history of the Reichstag, the working of parliaments, ecology-energy efficiency system, and the economics realizing the project. To approach this project, Norman Foster finally came into a resolution of creating the roof dome as the major public space and as an observation deck. The dome is made of the large glass dome with a 360-degrees view of the surrounding Berlin. The transparency of material also allows people to see the debating chamber of the Bundenstag, the German Parliament. The most prominent new structure is a glass cupola becomes a symbolic of “lightening�, which replaces the original cooper and glass dome destroyed. Not only ventilation the glass cupola also use as a mirror that reflects for the direct day lighting down into the chamber as energy efficiency. Section detail drawing
360 degrees view from new dome, Reichstag
This whole new design creation symbolically ties together between old and the new, reflects the new spirit for the German people and is appropriate restoration of history from the old building. The transparency of the dome expresses the reunification and the transparency of the government to the people symbolically expressing that “the people is above the government�. Beyond that, it also reminds the visitors about the history of Germany during World War II, and in this project Norman Foster succeeded in not only reinventingrenovating this remarkable building but also through expressing the history and the people of Germany.
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Looking at the buildings, it becomes an inspiration for designers to acquire the knowledge that designing does not necessarily mean creating something new. At times, designing means creating something new, or re creating something of existence. With all Norman foster’s ‘reinvention’ designs, we have peeled back the layers of history, opening it as the core of the building. As a designer we start to consider with our own interpretation of how to relate the old to the new, and achieve something deeper and more dynamic out of both the old and the new. Known as a modernist architect, Norman foster succeeds in using his modern way of thinking while revealing the history of the building. Not only that, he also teaches us to think about the environment surrounding by building with friendly material and keeping in mind energy and economic efficiency. It shows that one way to reinvigorate history is by implementing it into new designs. Modernity does not necessarily mean forgetting the old; modernity can mean embracing history in a way that allows it to adapt to the modern world while also adding modern values such as a consciousness towards environmental sustainability.
“The best architecture comes from a synthesis of all the elements that separately comprise a building: the structure that holds it up; the services that allow it to work; the ecology of the building—whether it is naturally ventilated, whether you can open the windows, the quality of light; the materials used, their mass or their lightness; the character of the spaces; the symbolism of the form; the relationship of the building to the skyline or the streetscape; and the way in which the building signals its presence in the city or the countryside. I think that holds true whether you are creating a landmark or deferring to a historic setting. Successful architecture addresses all these things and many more.” Norman Foster The pritzkerprize Architecture Prize 1999
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Bibliography
Foster, Norman, and Deyan Sudjic. Norman Foster and the British Museum. Munich: Prestel, 2001. Print.
Jodidio, Philip, and Norman Foster. Sir Norman Foster. Köln: Taschen, 1997. Print.
Foster, Norman, and Stephen Dobney. Norman Foster: selected and current works of Foster and Partners. Mulgrave, Vic.: Images Pub. Group, 1997. Print.
“Norman Foster 1999 Laureate Biography.” pritzkerprize. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. <http://www.pritzkerprize. com/sites/default/files/file_fields/field_ files_inline/1999_bio.pdf>.
“Great Court at the British Museum | Projects | Foster + Partners.” Great Court at the British Museum | Projects | Foster + Partners. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. <http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/great-court-at-thebritish-museum/>. http://www.masdearte.com/images/stories/exposiciones/e_foster_ivorypress. jpg http://img.gawkerassets.com/ img/18mm0ud90d68njpg/ku-medium. jpg http://juanmah.files.wordpress. com/2012/10/reichstag-kupel-mittel1920x1080.jpg
Pawley, Martin, and Norman Foster. Norman Foster: a global architecture. New York: Universe :, 1999. Print.
Schulz, Bernhard, and Norman Foster. The Reichstag: the Parliament building by Norman Foster. Munich: Prestel, 2000. Print. “Sackler Galleries, Royal Academy of Arts | Projects | Foster + Partners.”Sackler Galleries, Royal Academy of Arts | Projects | Foster + Partners. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. <http://www.fosterandpartners.com/ projects/sackler-galleries-royal-academy-of-arts/>.
“Reichstag, New German Parliament | Projects | Foster + Partners.” Reichstag, New German Parliament | Projects | Foster + Partners. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Nov. 2013. <http://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/reichstag-new-german-parliament/>. “Robert Kahn recommends Norman Foster’s Sackler Gallery.” Fang Duff Kahn Publishers. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. <http://fangduffkahn.com/ blog/2010/apr/05/robert-kahn-recommends-norman-fosters-sackler-gallery>.
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