Just twenty-four hours after the announcement that he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts, speaking from New York, in Norman Foster's voice reverberates still welcome this recognition. "I am truly happy to have received this award," he says.
Did you expect?
At all, for that reason is something much more special.
Four decades devoted to architecture, what was the drive or ambition that has driven his career and has continued to persist?
Nothing has been changed throughout this time. The challenge to design continues to be equally exciting. Design aims to improve the quality of our lives, whether designing a building, a bridge, a cabinet, the handle of a door, the infrastructure of a city park ... Everything is a conscious act of design can be done well or not, and what has motivated me permanently was the desire to do well at all times. Primarily sought to this desire, not the ambition to make money. Design affects us at different levels: material, emotional ... The architectural design affects our spirit and our daily lives, and that is a vision that defines my attitude and my team.
Ever wanted to be an architect?
I realize I've been interested in architecture long before even being aware that it was possible to be an architect. I left school at sixteen to twenty-one years he held different offices, but I remember that long before starting to study at the University of Manchester, and then at Yale, and watched buildings and I felt inspired by them.
What were your earliest references?
Different buildings of different eras. I have many memories of youth-related buildings noted. One of the first buildings in which they worked was the City of Manchester, a building of truly excellent Alfred Waterhouse, and take advantage of lunch hours to get close to seeing classic buildings such as the John Rylands Library, or modern buildings. In adolescence, I was fascinated by the impressive structure of a radio telescope that discovered in a town in Cheshire. Back in college, my favorite subject was the history of the buildings within the subject of art.
Belonging to a generation of enthusiasts who conceived architecture as the channel through which to create better environment for man, his figure and his work have been gradually becoming a revered model that is embodied in an architectural image for the power rather than be an important and valid for architects today.
At this time of economic crisis, how can the architecture as a tool to inspire and political economy?
Taking a look at the history, check that periods of recession and I do not mean just this, I can recall a few such as the Great Depression produced some fundamental architectural pieces, such as Rockefeller Center, Empire State building ... and major infrastructure works. Undoubtedly there is a difference between the types of investments that are made in times of crisis and those who are in times of prosperity, but a recession does not mean that life is over.
Richard Rogers recently intoned a mea culpa for the excesses of recent times. By contrast, Zaha Hadid noted that the crisis did not end the desire for an iconic architecture. What is your opinion on this debate?
I am not an economist nor pretend to be, but these days trust is a crucial factor. This is a time to invest, you must see this as a moment of hope. Our building Hearst Tower and Swiss Re were built immediately after the 11-S, and then received calls from people who assured me that no tall buildings to rise again after the 11-S, that nobody would invest in them. And it all happened, because the buildings over time can begin to respond adequately. At this moment we are winning major competitions because there are people who have the courage and confidence to invest, to fight against the current.
Do you belong to the elite architectural involves working from an awareness of the responsibility involved in influencing the status quo of architecture?
I find it somewhat difficult to me to associate the idea of architectural elite. We always have the same beliefs and guiding philosophy. I believe that the final architecture is that you do what you say about it.
The phone conversation ends abruptly, but sincerely, at this point, leaving some questions remain regarding the power of the great architect in the world global issues in which Foster, like other architects in the elite would prefer not to go too, maybe by the need to protect and keep your speech within an appropriate neutrality. The constant and clear statement that "the real architects have always worked for people, from some very powerful social objectives" remains the term in which he himself seems to recognize better explained.
Interview by:Fredy Massad y Alicia Guerrero Yeste
Did you expect?
At all, for that reason is something much more special.
Four decades devoted to architecture, what was the drive or ambition that has driven his career and has continued to persist?
Nothing has been changed throughout this time. The challenge to design continues to be equally exciting. Design aims to improve the quality of our lives, whether designing a building, a bridge, a cabinet, the handle of a door, the infrastructure of a city park ... Everything is a conscious act of design can be done well or not, and what has motivated me permanently was the desire to do well at all times. Primarily sought to this desire, not the ambition to make money. Design affects us at different levels: material, emotional ... The architectural design affects our spirit and our daily lives, and that is a vision that defines my attitude and my team.
Ever wanted to be an architect?
I realize I've been interested in architecture long before even being aware that it was possible to be an architect. I left school at sixteen to twenty-one years he held different offices, but I remember that long before starting to study at the University of Manchester, and then at Yale, and watched buildings and I felt inspired by them.
What were your earliest references?
Different buildings of different eras. I have many memories of youth-related buildings noted. One of the first buildings in which they worked was the City of Manchester, a building of truly excellent Alfred Waterhouse, and take advantage of lunch hours to get close to seeing classic buildings such as the John Rylands Library, or modern buildings. In adolescence, I was fascinated by the impressive structure of a radio telescope that discovered in a town in Cheshire. Back in college, my favorite subject was the history of the buildings within the subject of art.
Belonging to a generation of enthusiasts who conceived architecture as the channel through which to create better environment for man, his figure and his work have been gradually becoming a revered model that is embodied in an architectural image for the power rather than be an important and valid for architects today.
At this time of economic crisis, how can the architecture as a tool to inspire and political economy?
Taking a look at the history, check that periods of recession and I do not mean just this, I can recall a few such as the Great Depression produced some fundamental architectural pieces, such as Rockefeller Center, Empire State building ... and major infrastructure works. Undoubtedly there is a difference between the types of investments that are made in times of crisis and those who are in times of prosperity, but a recession does not mean that life is over.
Richard Rogers recently intoned a mea culpa for the excesses of recent times. By contrast, Zaha Hadid noted that the crisis did not end the desire for an iconic architecture. What is your opinion on this debate?
I am not an economist nor pretend to be, but these days trust is a crucial factor. This is a time to invest, you must see this as a moment of hope. Our building Hearst Tower and Swiss Re were built immediately after the 11-S, and then received calls from people who assured me that no tall buildings to rise again after the 11-S, that nobody would invest in them. And it all happened, because the buildings over time can begin to respond adequately. At this moment we are winning major competitions because there are people who have the courage and confidence to invest, to fight against the current.
Do you belong to the elite architectural involves working from an awareness of the responsibility involved in influencing the status quo of architecture?
I find it somewhat difficult to me to associate the idea of architectural elite. We always have the same beliefs and guiding philosophy. I believe that the final architecture is that you do what you say about it.
The phone conversation ends abruptly, but sincerely, at this point, leaving some questions remain regarding the power of the great architect in the world global issues in which Foster, like other architects in the elite would prefer not to go too, maybe by the need to protect and keep your speech within an appropriate neutrality. The constant and clear statement that "the real architects have always worked for people, from some very powerful social objectives" remains the term in which he himself seems to recognize better explained.
Interview by:Fredy Massad y Alicia Guerrero Yeste