00:00I'm Norman Foster. I'm here in our main studio in London and I'm answering
00:07questions from AD Architectural Digest.
00:15We are, all of us, fired by the prospect of design and realizing design. At the
00:25same time we question, we challenge, and wherever possible we innovate. We try to
00:34make change for good. But we're always aware of the historical dimension,
00:41whether that's cities in crisis which always bounce back more strongly, whether
00:49that's Lisbon earthquakes, the birth of seismic structures, whether it's cholera
00:55London, New York, realizing the Reservoir Central Park, creating the Thames
01:00Embankment, modern sanitation, whether it's the Great Fire of London that created
01:06the terraces. In all of these cases, and I could give you more examples, the lessons
01:11of history is that cities bounce back stronger.
01:17We were really quite desperate for work. We were in something called a bedsit, a very
01:28small apartment. That was our office. I was teaching part-time. My late wife, because
01:36Wendy and I founded the practice, she was working in an architect's office and I was
01:44teaching part-time. And one of the students, his father, worked in Docklands and said,
01:56I know that Fred Olsen, the shipping company, is talking to builders about a shower
02:04block, a bathroom, on the site. And I could get you a meeting with the Dock manager. Now,
02:14that, when you think about it, is perhaps the most humble project that you could imagine.
02:22And I went for it.
02:27Design is really the social agenda. Design is to improve the quality of our lives. Improve
02:37it materially, improve it spiritually. It's about concepts of beauty. It's about convenience,
02:43it's about convenience. And technology, that is the means to those social ends, which is
02:52about innovation. And of course, that's linked to sustainability. And sustainability is linked
03:01to nature, because if you're working with nature, you're reducing energy, you're creating
03:07healthier buildings.
03:09We have been using AI for some time. That technology is not new. Of course, it's much more powerful,
03:23has greater capability. We've seen since starting in practice, everything was hand-drawn. It's now on a
03:32screen. And all the themes of sustainability. At that time, that was a fringe activity. Now, it's
03:45absolutely mainstream and normal. So, with time, the context has changed. But we have not changed in terms of our philosophy.
03:58The human element, the contact, if you were commissioning a building or if you were a user in a building, you would have needs. We would have a conversation about that. If it's a city, it's a community. And if you're using the power, the digital power to be able to show how, making a positive change here, planting more trees here, changing the traffic pattern,
04:27the traffic pattern. You don't have to do it to find out whether it's as effective. You can actually anticipate that by modelling it. So, all of these tools can engage a community in a bottom-up approach to making changes, to make the city more healthy.
04:46Go for any project which presents an opportunity to design. And nothing can be too humble. The young individual or individuals who are starting a practice, nothing is wasted. Dare to take risks. And don't be ashamed of failure.
05:15Failure is only bad if you don't learn from it. So, if you really do it well, nothing is wasted. So, if you enter a competition and you don't win that competition, if you've really done justice to it, you will learn something. And that will then inform something else.
05:38And with the passage of time, I guarantee you will look back on that time when you were really sad and depressed. My God, you know, we've lost. But the reality is that you may not have won the competition, but you've won something more precious.
05:57There was one project for a national German athletic stadium that would have been built in Frankfurt. And it was the end of that analogue period. So, everything was done by hand. And there were probably several thousand little kind of model people in the world.
06:15And the engineer who worked with me on that project, Jack Zunz, sadly no longer with us, said, Norman, in my career, if there was one project that I'd really like to see built, it's the end of that analogue period.
06:17And the engineer who worked with me on that project, Jack Zunz, sadly no longer with us, said, Norman, in my career, if there was one project that I'd really like to see built, it's that project.
06:45It's a very, very difficult question because, as you say, it's almost like saying, choose your favourite child. I'd probably come at it more obliquely. I'd start to say, well, if I think of one project that perhaps ticks more boxes than any other, I think the Reichstag, in terms of its
07:15historical dimension, the way in which it seeks to wipe out a past that was pretty awful in terms of historic background. So, in a way, it is erased. And it's erased by Jean-Claude and Christo with the wrapping, in a way, a symbolic new life.
07:43But then, that cupola, with its cone, which reflects natural light, and which extracts air, pulls air through the building, is part of the ecology, which makes it virtually a zero-carbon building.
07:58So, it's a clean energy manifesto. And this is going back to the 1990s. Above all, it is democracy in action on the skyline. And the public are symbolically above the politicians who are answerable to them.
08:17I'd probably select the Sainsbury Centre because it was the first public building. And it's about culture. It's about bringing together public galleries with a teaching facility for students, all under one roof.
08:35And it was for Lord and Lady Sainsbury, who became Bob and Lisa, and were like the grandparents that I never had. So, there's a very personal dimension to that building.
08:51And then, I'd start to say the same thing, perhaps, about the Millennium Bridge, and the way in which it connects the prosperous North Bank, the financial heart of London, with traditionally the poorest South Bank.
09:09So, it's a social equaliser, but it's also about pedestrianisation. It's about a new perspective on the river, and a new kind of suspension bridge.
09:21And that's had a dramatic effect, not only on Southwark itself, socially. It's brought more people, and it's created hotels, jobs, but it's also increased St. Paul's, in terms of its attraction, Tate Modern, in terms of the number of visitors.
09:37So, again, working at many levels.
09:44In Madrid, in 2017, there was a big event in the Opera House. 2,000 young people. And one person said,
09:53Norman Foster, what advice would you give to somebody graduating? And I, without hesitation, because it was instinctive, I said,
10:03the advice that I would give myself, stay a student. And then, what do I mean by stay a student?
10:12I mean, dare to challenge, dare to question, be curious, be hungry, but above all, be humble.
10:22Every minute.
10:25I'll be telling you, I'll be happy would you
10:31.
10:41.
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