NORMAN FOSTER

LIFEBirth:June 1, 1935 in Manchester, England

Early Life :Born in a working class family, Norman Foster did not seem likely to become a famous architect. Although he was a good student in high school and showed an early interest in architecture, he did not enrol in college until he was 21 years old.

Education:Manchester University School of Architecture Yale University

Partnerships:At the beginning of his career, Foster worked as a member of the successful "Team 4" firm with his wife, Wendy Foster, and the husband and wife team of Richard Rogers and Sue Rogers. His own firm, Foster Associates, was founded in London in 1967.

“the best architecture comes from a synthesis of all the elements that separately comprise a building…”

-Foster

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY

HSBC BUILDING

TYPE : HQ. OF THE HONGKONG & SHANGHAI BANKING CORPORATION LIMITED LOCATION : HONG KONG CONSTRUCTION : 1983-85 OPENED IN : 1985 FLOORS : 44 + 4 BASEMENT LEVELS HEIGHT : 180 m CLIENT : HSBC, HONG KONG ALSO CALLED “THE ROBOT BUILDING” BECAUSE THERE IS A RUMOUR THAT IT CAN BE DISMANTLED AND MOVED.

GENERAL

GRAND INTERIORS

A CONCEPTUAL SKETCH BY FOSTER

A VIEW AT NIGHT

•The main characteristic of HSBC Hong Kong headquarters is its absence of internal supporting structure.•Another notable feature is that natural sunlight is the major source of lighting inside the building.

•There is a bank of giant mirrors at the top of the atrium, which can reflect natural sunlight into the atrium and hence down into the plaza.

•Through the use of natural sunlight, this design helps to conserve energy.

FEATURES

•Instead of fresh water, sea water is used as coolant for the air-conditioning system.•All flooring is made from lightweight movable panels, under which lies a network of power, telecommunication, and air-conditioning systems.

•Lightweight movable panels

•The inverted ‘V’ segments of the suspension trusses are the most obvious characteristic of the building.•There are five levels of triangular suspension trusses which are locked into supporting aluminium masts.

•The entrance is flanked by 2 huge lion statues.•Lions are considered to bring luck and prosperityAccording to feng shui.•The HSBC building has a wide open area in front of it.

•Plan of 22nd floor.

•All floor plans are more or less of this basic shape only.

PLANS OF GROUND, 7TH , 15TH , 27TH & 32ND FLOORS resp.

•This building mostly has office areas.•Conference rooms, canteens, locker rooms are also there.•Parking has been provided at the basement.

PARKING

OFFICES

SECTION SECTIONAL PERSPECTIVE

30 MARY AXE LONDON

TYPE : OFFICE BUILDINGLOCATION : MAIN FINANCIAL DISTRICT,LONDON, UKCONSTRUCTION : 2001-03OPENED IN : 2004HEIGHT : 180 mFLOORS : 40MAIN OCCUPANT : SWISS REINSURANCE COMPANY

GENERAL

•This building is one of the most imposing buildings in London city.•Since its completion, the building has won a number of prestigious awards for architecture.•In October 2004, the building was awarded the 2004 RIBA Stirling Prize.•In December 2005, a survey voted the tower as the most admired new building in the world.

A CONCEPTUAL SKETCH, MADE BY FOSTER HIMSELF

•THE FINEST DESIGN OF FOSTER.•CONSIDERED AS FOSTER’S “FALLING WATER”.•ALSO KNOWN AS “THE GHERKIN”.

MAINENTRANCE

•Tall building designs offer the possibility of reducing the footprint at street level and help the office floors to bewell proportioned for natural light.

•The curved form developed for the Swiss Re building achieves the objective of maximizing the wind flow by virtue of its streamlined aerodynamic shape.

The elements of the facade.• Openable glass screen.• Perforated aluminum louvers (internal sun-screen)• A column casing of aluminum• Façade frame of extruded aluminum

FEATURES

•The structure is madeup of ‘diagrid’, comprised of steel pieces joined together at triangular nodes.•This design allows for uninterrupted office interiors.

•Its shape is such that it reduces the amount of volatile winds at base and makes it easier for the wind to just pass-by, without harming the built mass.

• 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.

•The shafts create a giant double glazing effect; air is sandwiched between two layers of glazing and insulates the office space inside.

FEATURES

•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.•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.

shafts Lens shapedcap

SECTION

PLANS OF 3rd , 22nd & 34th

floors resp.

SHAFTS

PARKING

FLOORS

SHAFTSBAR

RESTAURANT

OFFICES

The restaurant operates on the 39th floor, and private dining rooms on the 38th floor.

The upper three levels of the buildingfrom level 38 provide corporate facilities for Swiss Re and other tenants, including private dining rooms, restaurant and an upper viewing mezzanine offering 360° views over London.

•No floor is similar. Each floor is rotated by 5° from the floor above or below it.

•Trimmed and freely growing hedges and creepers, typical English garden.

•The interior plantings combine the traditional ways to control the interior climate with the new techniques. •These plant containers are not placed firmly on the ground but move

when they are touched by employees or visitor.

•Foster designs incorporates many sustainable theories and practices, while also maintaining a very contemporary and modern feel.

“Technology is part of civilization and being anti-technology would be like declaringwar on architecture and civilization itself. If I can get carried away with some passionabout 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.”

CONCLUSION

TADAO ANDO

Born in 1941 in Osaka, Japan Did not receive any formal architectural schooling but trained

himself by reading and travelling. Ando developed a radically new architecture characterized by the

use of unfinished reinforced concrete structures: Using a geometric simplicity Architecture that shares the serenity and clarity that

characterize traditional Japanese architecture. Working mostly in exposed concrete, his simple forms create

spaces that interact with the outdoors and change dramatically over the course of the day as light moves through them

He is winner of many prestigious architectural awards Carlsberg Prize (1992), Pritzker Prize (1995), Premium Imperial (1996), Gold Medal of Royal Institute of British Architects (1997)

INTRODUCTION

•Based on Zen philosophies, focuses on the concept of simplicity and concentrates on the inner feeling rather than the appearance.• Considered a patron of Minimalism but doesn’t compromises with the design• Pure space enveloped in simple concrete rectangular forms.•Extensive use of Concrete and glass in the pure form• Simplified, rectilinear forms and bare, naked concrete walls that define the spaces within• Style- element of Light, Water through concrete and glass

STYLE &PHILOSOPHY

The Water Temple

Site Plan

Visitors enter this Water Temple through the middle of an oval pool of water. Inside, natural light only enters through one corner, diffusing the temple with soft red light at the end of the day.

• The Water Temple is the residence of Ninnaji Shingon, the oldest sect of Tantric Buddhism in Japan, founded in 815.

• More than just a building, it is a sensory experience that represents a radical change in the Millenary tradition of building temples in Japan.

• The Water Temple is located in the former city of Hompukuji, located in the northern part of the island of Awaji, and is characterized by a landscape dominated by hills.

• The Water Temple is far from the wooden structures of the classic Buddhist temples but it seems to them by their Mystical quality of space.

• Among the bamboo forests, mountains, fields of rice and is, the hardening appears as a lake of lotus flowers, enclosed in a thin oval of concrete structure protected by cement barriers smooth.

DESIGN THEME

• After the close down stairs, between the cement walls, one arrives atlast into the sacred space where concrete through a network of wooden Lattice designed to hand in a circle of 18 meters in diameter, which houses a statue of Buddha, behind which lies the only natural light .

• There is still a game of basic elements of geometry that creates a path that leads gradually and continuously to the Place of Worship.

Church of Light

• Tadao Ando 's most remarkable works are certainly the religious buildings.

• The church of the light is located in the north-east of the centre of Osaka.

• This church is a simple building that makes the most of what it can. Consisting of only six walls and a ceiling, it is a testament to the phrase “less is more”.

• A cruciform is cut into the concrete behind the altar, and lit during the morning (as it is facing east).

• In the chapel light enters from behind the altar from a cross cut in the concrete wall that extends vertically from floor to ceiling and horizontally from wall to wall, aligning perfectly with the joints in the concrete.

 From this cruciform shape an abstract and universal light seems to be floating on the concrete wall, its rays extending and receding over time with the movement of the sun. 

• At this intersection of light and solid the occupant is meant to become aware of the deep division between the spiritual and the secular within himself or herself.

DESIGN THEME

• The Church of the Light consists of three 5.9m concrete cubes (5.9m wide x 17.7m long x 5.9m high) penetrated by a wall angled at 15°, dividing the cube into the chapel and the entrance area.

• Circulation into the space is controlled by the angled wall.

• One indirectly enters the church by slipping between the two volumes, one that contains the Sunday school and the other that contains the worship hall.

• The benches, along with the floor boards, are made of re-purposed scaffolding used in the construction.

CHURCH PLAN & SECTION

CHURCH PLAN & SECTION

•Zen philosophies-simplicity

•Use of exposed concrete

•Play between translucence and opacity

•Walls- basic element of architecture

• Minimal ornamentation.

Ando’s style uses simple geometric forms, lots of exposed concrete and the creative use of natural light.

CONCLUSION