We visited the foundation created by the renowned architect in Madrid, which has been promoting architectural education and research since 2015 | View the Program Summary in PDF
The final visit of the 2023 Australian Leaders Program aimed to learn about the Norman Foster Foundation: an institution created by the renowned British architect Norman Foster with the goal of helping new generations of architects, designers, and urban planners anticipate the future through a holistic education.
The co-directors of the Foundation’s Architecture and Technology Unit, Alberto Cendoya and Diego López, guided the Leaders through the Foundation’s facilities and explained how it operates, as well as the projects it is currently developing.
Founded in 2015 and officially inaugurated in 2017, the Norman Foster Foundation has three main departments: the archive, the education and research area, and the architecture, design, and technology department.
The archive is dedicated to cataloguing, preserving, and disseminating the architectural records of Norman Foster’s work. It includes materials from 1948 to the present day, such as plans, drawings, and models. In total, there are more than 115,000 records available for consultation through the Foundation’s website.
The education and research department, for its part, has been organizing workshops since 2017, attended by students from more than 20 countries around the world. The topics covered include sustainability, urban mobility, energy, and affordable housing. These one-week workshops are organized in collaboration with numerous universities worldwide.
The success of this workshop program inspired the creation of the Norman Foster Institute on Sustainable Cities. This new initiative aims to establish a multidisciplinary education center that offers scholarships to graduates and professionals working in fields related to sustainability and cities.
The institute will develop one-year courses, and its programs will focus on achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which have recognized the Norman Foster Foundation as one of their reference centers. The first course of the Norman Foster Institute will begin in January 2024 and will focus on sustainable cities.
Finally, the Foundation’s third department—architecture, design, and technology—develops numerous projects around the world. These initiatives explore concepts related to sustainability, technology, mobility, and modularity, among others. Examples include a drone airport in Rwanda designed to transport medicine and blood to hard-to-reach areas; the BYD Skyrail project, which explores the possibility of combining monorails with social, environmental, and economic infrastructure; and a portable nuclear battery project developed in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Leaders also visited the Foundation’s various exhibition rooms, where plans and models of the architect’s most significant projects are displayed. Born in Manchester in 1935, Norman Foster has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the Mies van der Rohe Award in 1992, the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1999, and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts in 2009. Among his most famous buildings and constructions are the headquarters of Apple, the Millennium Bridge, the London City Hall, and the Bilbao Metro, among many others.
Participants in the meeting:
· Alberto Cendoya y Diego López, Co-Directors of Architecture and Technology at the Fundación Norman Foster
View the Program Summary in PDF
