Norman Foster

“As an architect you design for the present, with an awareness of the

past, for a future which is essentially unknown”

Content• Aim of presentation• About him• The biography• The main buildings:o "the Gherkin“o Reichstago Terminal 3 of the Beijing Capital International Airporto The Palace of Peace and Reconciliationo Khan Shatyr o City Hallo The Hearst Towero The Millau

• Tips

• The aim of this presentation is to show the long way to success of one of the outstanding architects of our present.

About him• Norman Foster is a British

architect. He was born in Manchester in 1935. After graduating from Manchester University School of Architecture and City Planning in 1961 he won a Henry Fellowship to Yale University, where he gained a Master’s Degree in Architecture. In 1963 he co-founded Team 4 and in 1967 he established Foster Associates, now known as Foster + Partners. Founded in London, it is now a worldwide practice, with project offices in more than twenty countries.

“My mission is to create a structure that is sensitive to the culture and climate of its place”

The Biography

• Foster was raised in Manchester in a working-class family and was intrigued by design and engineering from a young age. Foster's parents were diligent, hard workers - so diligent that Foster, an only child, felt their heavy workload restricted his relationship with them and he was often looked after by neighbours or other family members. He attended Grammar School in Burnage. He said he always felt 'different' at school and was bullied. He retired into the world of books and was quiet and awkward in his early years making faux pas. in 1956 Foster won a place at the University of Manchester School of Architecture and City Planning. Foster failed to get a grant to help fund his studies, and being from a working-class background money was at a minimum. He took up a number of part-time jobs to fund his studies in Architecture. His jobs in his teenage years included being an ice-cream salesman, night-club bouncer and working night shifts at the local bakery to make crumpets.

• 30 St Mary Axe (formerly the Swiss Re Building, and informally also known as "the Gherkin") is a skyscraper in London's financial district, the City of London, completed in December 2003 and opened at the end of May 2004.With 41 floors, the tower is 180 metres (591 ft) tall.

• The building has become an iconic symbol of London and is one of the city's most widely recognised examples of modern architecture.

The reconstruction was completed in 1999. The Reichstag is now the second most visited attraction in Germany, not least because of the huge glass dome that was erected on the roof as a gesture to the original 1894 cupola, giving an impressive

view over the city, especially at night

Terminal 3 of the Beijing Capital International Airport is currently the second largest airport passenger terminal

building of the world.

The Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, also translated as the Pyramid of Peace and Accord, is a 77 m high building in Astana

Khan Shatyr ("Royal Marquee") is a giant transparent tent in Astana

City Hall is the headquarters of the Greater London Authority

(GLA) which comprises the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. It is located in Southwark, on the south bank of

the River Thames near Tower Bridge.

The Hearst Tower is a building in Midtown Manhattan. It is the world headquarters of the Hearst Corporation, bringing

together for the first time their numerous publications and communications companies under one roof, including, among others, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Marie Claire, Harper's Bazaar,

Good Housekeeping and Seventeen.

• The Millau is a cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the

valley of the river Tarn near Millau in southernFrance.• It it is the tallest bridge in the world with one mast's summit

at 343.0 metres (1,125 ft) above the base of the structure.

Some tips from world-recognized architect

• An open mind, energy, an appetite for hard work

• A willingness to explore new solutions and push boundaries.

• A sense of humor is also helpful.