This document provides information about renowned architect Norman Foster. It discusses his educational background and career highlights, including establishing Foster and Partners in 1967. It outlines his design philosophy of embracing technology. It then provides details about two specific projects - Hearst Tower in New York City and The Bow in Calgary. For each project, it discusses the design, construction, sustainability features, and awards. It also includes images of floor plans, elevations and interiors for both buildings.
2. ABOUT SIR FOSTER • Born in 1935 in Manchester, England.
• Entered Manchester School of Architecture
when 21 years old.
• Received Master’s Degree at Yale University.
• Norman, Wendy, Sue Rogers and Richard
Rogers form firm ‘Team 4’ in 1963.
• Foster’s Associates (now known as Foster and
Partners) created in 1967 30st Mary Axe ,
London.
• Receives AIA Gold Medal (1994).
• Wins the Pritzker Architecture Prize (1999).
• Currently has offices across the world in London,
Berlin and Singapore with over 500 employees.
3. DESIGN
PHILOSOPHY “Technology is part of civilization and
being anti-technology would be like
declaring war on architecture and
civilization itself. If I can get carried
away with some passion about the poetry
of the light in one of my projects, then I
can also, in the same vein, enjoy the
poetry of the hydraulic engineering.”
5. General information
Type- Office
Location- 300 West 57 Street, New York City, USA
Height- Roof- 182 m (597 ft)
Technical details
Floor count 46
Floor area
80,000 square meters (861,100 sq. ft.)
(861,100 sq. ft.)
6. • Hearst Tower is the first "green" high rise office building completed in
New York City, with a number of environmental considerations built into
the plan.
• The floor of the atrium is paved with heat conductive limestone.
• Polyethylene tubing is embedded under the floor and filled with circulating
water for cooling in the summer and heating in the winter.
• Rain collected on the roof is stored in a tank in the basement for use
in the cooling system, to irrigate plants and for the water sculpture in the
main lobby.
• 85% of the building's structural steel contains recycled material.
• Overall, the building has been designed to use 26% less energy than
the minimum requirements for the city of New York, and earned a gold
designation from the United States Green Building
Council’s LEED certification program, becoming New York City's first LEED
7. • The atrium features escalators which run
through a 3-story water sculpture titled Icefall,
a wide waterfall built with thousands of glass
panels, which cools and humidifies the lobby
air. The water element is complemented by a
70-foot-tall (21 m) fresco painting
titled Riverlines by artist Richard Long.
• According to Curbed, "Designing a cleaning rig
that could that clean the Hearst Tower took
the engineers at Tractel-Swingstage three years
(and $3 million); the company's vice-president
of engineering had never seen anything like
what Foster and Partners' called the building's
bird's mouths.
12. • Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
• Height: 58 stories; 775 feet; 239 meters
• Construction to Completion: 2005 to 2013
• Use: Mixed-use; headquarters of EnCana and Cenovus (energy)
• Sustainability: Curved design faces south (heat and natural daylight) with
convex facade toward the prevailing wind; three interior sky gardens (levels
24, 42 and 54)
• Design: Diagrid, six stories for each triangulated section; most offices have a
window view because of the curved design.
• Construction: Trussed-tube, steel-framed, glass curtain wall
• Awards: Emporis World's Most Spectacular Corporate Building
ABOUT THE BOW
13. AT 247 METERS, THE
BOW IS THE TALLEST
BUILDING IN THE CITY,
AND THE TALLEST
TOWER IN CANADA
OUTSIDE OF TORONTO.
14. CLIMATE ANALYSIS HELPED TO
DETERMINE THE FORM OF THE TOWER,
WITH A CONCAVE FACADE ON THE
SOUTH SIDE FACING THE SUN AND A
CONVEX SURFACE REDUCING THE LOAD
OF PREVAILING WINDS ON THE OTHER
SIDE.
15. A triangulated grid structure
with sections spanning six
storeys braces the building
and helps to reduce the visual
mass of the surfaces. "Every
aspect, from the raised floors
to the diagrid structure, is
designed to be highly
efficient," says Nigel Dancey, a
senior partner at Foster +
Partners
16. A series of atria occupy
the space behind the
concave facade, helping
to insulate the building
and reduce energy
consumption.
17. Three sky gardens projecting into the atria
provide social spaces for staff in the offices that
occupy the building, featuring mature trees,
meeting rooms, catering facilities and lifts.
18. Each triangulated section of the structure
spans six storeys, helping to visually break
down the scale of the building
19. • A bold new landmark on the skyline, the project is
equally significant in urban, social and environmental
terms: the public base of the tower is filled with
shops, restaurants and cafes and extends into a
generous landscaped plaza, while the office floors are
punctuated by three six-storey sky gardens, which
encourage natural ventilation and help to significantly
reduce energy use.
• The Bow is the first major development on the east
side of Centre Street, a major axis through downtown
Calgary, and it provides a shared headquarters for
Encana and Cenovus.
22. General information
Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters, Ipswich
Style
High Tech
• The Willis building in Ipswich, England (originally the Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters ) is one of the earliest buildings designed
by Norman Foster after establishing Foster Associates.
• Constructed between 1970 and 1975 for the insurance firm now known as Willis Group Holdings, it is now seen as a landmark in the
development of the 'high tech' architectural style.
• The building houses some 1,300 office staff in open plan offices spread over three floors
• The center of the building is constructed from a grid of concrete pillars, 14 m (46 ft) apart, supporting cantilevered concrete slab floors.
• The exterior is clad in a dark smoked glass curtain wall.
23. • The use of dark glass, curtain wall and lack of right
angle corners mirrors the art deco Express
Building in Manchester - one of Norman Foster's
favorite buildings.
• The central escalator well leads up to a rooftop staff
restaurant surrounded by a rooftop garden (360
panorama).
• Originally there was also a swimming pool for
employees to enjoy during their lunch break. This
has now been covered up (not filled in due to it
being a listed building) and the space is used for
more offices. The swimming pool can be seen
underneath the false floor.
27. Type Office
Location
St. Mary Axe
London, United Kingdom
General information
Height
Roof- 180 meters (591 ft)
Technical details
Floor count 41
Floor area 47,950 square meters (516,100 sq ft)
28. • The building has become an iconic symbol of
London and is one of the city's most widely
recognized examples of modern architecture.
• The building uses energy-saving methods which
allow it to use half the power a similar tower
would typically consume.
• Gaps in each floor create six shafts that serve as
a natural ventilation system for the entire
building even though required firebreaks on
every sixth floor interrupt the "chimney.“
• The shafts create a giant double glazing effect;
air is sandwiched between two layers of glazing
and insulates the office space inside.
• Architects promote double glazing in residential
houses to avoid the inefficient convection of
heat, but the tower exploits this effect.
• The shafts pull warm air out of the building during the summer and warm
the building in the winter using passive solar heating. The shafts also allow
sunlight to pass through the building, making the work environment more
pleasing, and keeping the lighting costs down.
29. • The primary methods for controlling wind-excited sways are to increase the
stiffness, or increase damping with tuned/active mass dampers. To a design by
Arup, its fully triangulated perimeter structure makes the building sufficiently stiff
without any extra reinforcements.
• Despite its overall curved glass shape, there is only one piece of curved glass
on the building—the lens-shaped cap at the very top.
• On the building's top level (the 40th floor), there is a bar for tenants and their
guests featuring a 360° view of London.
• A restaurant operates on the 39th floor, and private dining rooms on the 38th.
• Whereas most buildings have extensive lift equipment on the roof of the building,
this was not possible for the Gherkin, since a bar had been planned for the
40th floor. The architects dealt with this by having the main lift only reach the
34th floor, and then having a push-from-below lift to the 39th floor.
• There is a marble stairwell and a disabled persons' lift which leads the visitor up
to the bar in the dome.
• The building is visible over long distances: from the north, for instance, it can be
seen from the M11 motorway some 32 kilometers (20 mi) away, while to the
west it can be seen from the statue of George III in Windsor Great Park.