FADE IN

FIRST CARDBOARD 00:19

1. EVERYTHING INSPIRES ME, SOMETIMES I ASK MYSELF IF I SEE
THINGS WHICH OTHERS DONT SEE.
NORMAN FOSTER
SECONSCARDBOARD 01:28
2.- HOW MUCH DOES YOUR BUILDING WEIGH, MR FOSTER?
A SINGLE MAN THE SIZE OF AN ANT WALKING ACROSS A HUGE WHITE,
HAZY SNOWSCAPE.
TITLE & CREDITS
NOW THE SNOWSCAPE IS COVERED WITH CROSS-COUNTRY SKIERS.
ONE OF THE SKIERS IS:
NORMAN FOSTER
NORMAN AT CHESA FUTURA
DEYAN
If you look at how Norman looks, always
dressed in a very particular kind of style, it
reflects the quality of his architecture very
much. It has that sense of doing things
precisely, carefully, consideredly. But you
could also say that theres something about his
architecture which is hard to read. How do you
understand a building, which is a black-glassed
curved screen, you dont quite know what
going on inside that and maybe thats Norman
also.
DRAWINGS BY NF REVERSE ANGLE OF CHESA FUTURA, FOLLOWED BY
A VARIETY OF SKETCHES

NORMAN
The first drawing I can remember making was
of an aircraft and it was it used the only
knowledge of aircraft that I had first hand which
was a model aircraft with the high wings, the
ribs, and the source of power was, you know,
rubber, I mean strands of rubber, but this was
on a Herculean scale, you know, I was up
there several storeys above the ground with
the joy stick and the lever that would unleash
these kilometers of rubber that would turn this.
And I obviously had this fantasy that, you
16 December 09

know, I was sitting there in control of this great

craft. I can remember the drawing very well.

2. THE MILLAU VIADUCT

DEYAN
You can see all kinds of reasons why Norman,
throughout his life, has been so fascinated by
flight. There is of course the beauty of the
artefact. The way that a wing curves over an
engine, the way that the rivets bring together
pieces of metal. There is also of course the
sense of being in control and command. If he
had been taught to fly when he was in the
Royal Air Force, theres no question that the
world would have lost an architect. He would
have become a pilot.
NORMAN
Ascending a building like the Eiffel Tower
changed the way a lot of people saw the world.
They literally saw it in another perspective and
thats reflected in the paintings. I think as an
architect if youre privileged to be able to enjoy
that dimension of flight. To be able to see how
awesome nature is, and the forces of nature, to
be able to fly vast distances at high speeds
with no engine on solar power and to able to
literally almost sniff out the rising air from the
sinking air and to remain aloft. But, its also
about challenges and its the poetic dimension.
Its something I never tire of, never will.
DEYAN
There is something that is nothing short of awe
inspiring about the idea of a bridge marching
forward through a landscape on a series of
giant legs the scale of skyscrapers. It even
wiggles as youre driving across so you can
see how spectacular it looks. Wed forgotten
that useful things could be this beautiful.

16 December 09

3. NORMANS DRAWINGS
NORMAN SITTING AT THE ROUND TABLE DRAWING.
DEYAN
Norman never stops drawing, he
communicates in the most effective way
through a sharp pencil and a beautiful block of
paper. In his cars there are fresh notepads
and freshly sharpened pencils, just in case
something comes to him.
A SERIES OF DETAILS OF NORMANS DRAWINGS
DEYAN
He is always drawingdrawing, drawing,
drawing. Its the way he thinks, its the way he
argues points. You can see the buildings take
shape. His lines are very spare but very
expressive in a very economical way, just like
Norman.
TONY HUNT 07:47
I think hes the most self-motivated person Ive
ever met without a doubt. He has passions, he
has a passion for architecture, he has a
passion for skiing, and Langlaufing. He has a
passion for flying which is, I mean, amazing,
but, you know, I dont know nowbut he had a
commercial pilots licence.
LORD WEIDENFELD 08:09
He wants to conquer weakness, conquer
infirmity, conquer weakness in a sense that he
wants to show how far one can do through will
power.
RICHARD ROGERS 08:15

I came from a sort of continental, motherfather, upper middle class, so Norman really
made it himself. I am full of admiration for that
16 December 09

but it made him very much know from the

beginning where he is going to go.
4. MANCHESTER
CLOSE-UP OF A RAILROAD TRACKS
NORMAN RETURNS TO HIS HOME IN MANCHESTER.

NORMAN
I remember hearing bombers go over the
house in the middle of the night with my
mother. I remember talking rationally about,
you know, what kind of bomber it might be and
just breaking down into a flood of tears. Just
being absolutely abjectly terrified.
FOTOS OF NORMAN AS A CHILD
DEYAN
Norman was an only child. He was born in the
meanstreets of Manchester, just after the Great
Depression. Robert, his father managed a
pawn brokers shop. His mother Lilly became a
waitress.
BONO 09:40
My voice had changed when my father died.
My father was a tenor and somehow this was a
gift in passing I just found a new voice almost.
And I was asking him about his father and what
he got from his father and Norman said both
from his father and his mother just work ethic.
They worked and they worked and they
worked. And then he said the only thing was
he perhaps as a result of them working so
hard, he hadnt got to know them so well as he
would have liked.
NORMAN WALKS UP THE STAIRS TO HIS ROOM
DEYAN
This is a very important room, isnt it? This is
where you did those drawings that got you into
university?
16 December 09

NORMAN
Yes and when I was at university I had a
drawing board here. And this is where I did
most of my student work.
THE FACADE OF NORMANS HOUSE AND BEDROOM WINDOW
DEYAN
One of the things he did for the portfolio to get
to university was to draw the view from his
bedroom window.
ANIMATION OF NORMANS SKETCH OF THE BRIDGE TO THE OTHER
WORLD
DEYAN
The view he had was of a railway line which
went right past his window at eye level and he
wouldve been out there looking at these big
black steam engines rushing past throwing out
smoke and cinders. Under the track theres a
passageway that goes from Normans street
which is humble, poor. You can smell the
damp. But you go through this tunnel under the
railway and you find yourself suddenly in a
middle-class suburb with trees on the streets
and detached villas. And you realise of course
that Norman was on the wrong side of the
tracks.
NORMAN
I came from a background where the only
honourable work, if you like, was manual work.
I moved up into a sort of middle-class world of
a guaranteed pension, all the security that my
parents never had and which they yearned for
me. So I was working in Manchester Town
Hall. I find it totally depressing. I mean Id
escape at lunchtime. I would discover
Architecture. I didnt know I was actually
discovering Architecture, it was only afterwards
I realised it. Id be looking at buildings. My
escape route was a bicycle to get me out of
that environment into other kinds of worlds.
DEYAN
When he came out of the Air Force, he was
16 December 09

lucky enough to be recommended to do a job

working in a firm of architects, not as a
designer, but as an assistant to the guy that
ran the building contracts.
NORMAN
I plucked up courage to talk to the most junior
person in the drawing office. And I remember
challenging this guy and saying what do you
think of Frank Lloyd Wright? And Frank Lloyd
Wright was one of my passions through the
local library, you know, like Le Corbusier and
so on. So I then started to engage individuals
in conversation: How do you become an
architect? What do you have to do? Well, you
have to have a portfolio. How do you get a
portfolio? Well I dunno! I mean, its drawings!
So Id be drawing out of the bedroom window,
Id be taking drawings home from
Beardshaws, copying them in the evening.
And then, I thought I had to tell the boss, so I
knocked on the door of John Beardshaw and I
said you know I just have to tell you Im going
to apply to be an architect. But you have to
have a portfolio. Ive got a portfolio. How can
you have a portfolio? So I told him I took his
drawings home in the evening. So he said you
have to bring it in the next day, which I did. He
said, you know, youre a square peg in a round
hole. And he gave me an office, a T-square, a
book of graphic standards and gave me a
project, a house. So that was a turning point.
5. SWISS RE-NORMANS DESIGN
DEYAN
The essence of Normans architecture is that
design can make things work better. And its a
very optimistic belief. Architecture can make
your life feel better. On a small scale, it
transformed his adolescent bedroom in the
suburbs of Manchester. Later, it could take him
away from that narrow world and make almost
anything possible.
NORMAN
Architecture, I guess, for me is something that
moves the spirit, that really works in terms of
16 December 09

all the senses. In that sense its about the

things that you can measure you can quantify
and, if you like, the spiritual dimension which is
rooted in all of the senses and which you cant
measure. But you know its there. It moves
you. It moves your spirit.

6. YALE
NORMAN FLYING IN A HELICOPTER OVER NEW YORK VIA NEW HAVEN.
HE WALKS INTO YALE.
NORMAN
This was the school of architecture,
unbelievable... The same ceiling, the
extraordinary staircase... Difficult to imagine
it... Very familiar.
DEYAN
Yale, in 1961, was still under the spell of
modernism. Paul Rudolph, the Dean had been
a student of Walther Gropius, founder of the
Bauhaus, and the fire of the modern movement
was still alive. Yale was full of strong teachers,
but it was dominated Rudolph. He was the man
who taught Foster how draw like an architect,
and even how to look like one. Rudolph also
made him cry. He used the words: You dont
care enough to Norman, after he had been up
all night, working on a project.
PAUL GOLDBERGER 17:34
Yale never had a kind of ideology and Rudolf
was particularly good at bringing out the best of
every student. He was tough on them. He
was famously tough and rigorous but it was
about bringing what you wanted to do.
CARL ABBOTT 17:52
Rudolf really encouraged Norman. He really
pushed him. With most of us, he pushed us or
youd be out, but I think he pushed Norman
more than anybody in our group. I think he
saw things in Norman that most of us did not
16 December 09

see then.
NORMAN
I worked on this building. I did a lot of drawing
on the perspectives so if you just took a
photograph of this I can show you an
extraordinary drawing which was probably
about so big where I was drawing line after line
after line.
PHOTOS OF SERGE CHERMAYEFF
DEYAN
Also on the teaching staff was Serge
Chermayeff. He wanted them to think about
communities, about how they worked. And he
was the one who was pushing Norman to
thinking about how you design a whole world, a
whole environment.
PHOTOS OF VINCENT SCULLY
DEYAN
Vincent Scully, the other great force there was
the historian, who was passionate about
making architecture come alive for his
students.
RICHARD ROGERS 18:52
Vince Scully and Rudolf were very much about
the visual, how you saw things, how you
approached things, how things unwound as
you looked at them from different angles.
SHOTS OF AMERICA ON THE ROAD
DEYAN
Scully was the one who encouraged both
Norman and Richard to drive across America.
They went on pilgrimages to look at great
architecture.
CARL ABBOTT 19:13
As we drove into the city of Chicago in my VW
car, and it had one of those windows in the top,
the whole crew, not Sue but Richard and
Norman kept, and it was freezing, I mean it
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was like snow everywhere, wanting the top to

be open while we were driving so they could
take photographs of the oil derricks and the big
things all around Chicago going into the city.
DEYAN
It was where the idea that they would start a
partnership one day was born.
MONTAGE OF CHICAGO 1950-60s
ALAIN DE BOTTON 20:10
Having being inspired initially by American
architects, Foster had then returned later in his
career to remind Americans of lessons they
gave the world originally but subsequently
forgot. So hes like many people of his
generation, someone who admired America,
perhaps more than it deserved at the time, and
is kind of more enthusiastic about America
than the Americans are themselves because
America isnt quite maybe what Foster
imagined it to be. He had a romantic vision of
America.
7. NEW YORK HEARST ART & ARCHITECTURE
NORMAN
Just going back its Manhattan, its New York,
its the skyline. Its the city of towers. You think
of skyscrapers, its New York. The good news
is that we have a tower in New York. The bad
news is that its a very, very small tower
amongst the most extraordinary collection of
mega-towers. And how do you make this
tower have a presence when its physically so
small?
ANISH KAPOOR 21:31
Scale, is not the same thing as size. Scale is a
quantity of somewhat abstract proportions. It
has, it bears a relationship to, at one level, to
the body. But it bears a bigger relationship to
the imagination. The way the pyramids in
Egypt do. Whatever you do, you walk up them,
16 December 09

you walk around them, they remain the scale

they are, which is somehow bigger than what
they really are.
PAUL GOLDBERGER 21:55
When the Hearst building was finished, I called
Foster the Mozart of modernism. Because I
thought that that conveyed the way his work
seems sort of lyrical, elegant and effortless.
And just as we know with Mozart there was
huge effort behind all that, but part of his
genius was to produce this finished piece of
music that didnt show the effort. It just
seemed to sort of dance perfectly through the
air. But, Foster buildings tend to do that. They
dont show their effort.
NORMAN
That diagrid, the triangulation not only
produces something, which is inherently
stronger. And we can go back in terms of
antecedents, to Buckminster Fuller, Barnes
Wallace and those aircraft of the late thirties
Structures in nature which are triangulated,
inherently stronger, using twenty per cent less
steel, a good start in terms of the sustainability
story, especially when eighty per cent of that is
recycled steel.
DEYAN
The Hearst Tower set out to be as green as
possible. But, magically, it also manages to
come up with a new geometry no New York
skyscraper had ever tried before. The corners
look as if they dissolve into thin air.
RICHARD SERRA 23:24
I like the building in New York and I told him
that and he said it was too squat. And I said
no, thats wrong, I think the muscularity that
building I like. I think thats a very good
building.
ANTHONY CARO 23:40
The trouble with so much sculpture is the
larger it gets, the worse it gets. And I think the
16 December 09

10

architect understand how when something is

put outside in the open air it changes, the air
eats into it and it has to be richer and it has to
be altogether different. And all these things, we
havent even got to first base on and architects
know all about it, so we can learn from them on
this.
SHOTS OF RICHARD LONG PAINTING THE RIVERLINES AT THE HEARST
NORMAN
Im fascinated by the work of artists, and the
relationship between space and works of art,
the synergy between a painting, a sculpture, a
furniture. The way that those come together,
which is a kind of endless personal pursuit.
RICHARD LONG 24:40
Given my love of water of stones and mud and
raw materials, and also like the fact that the
first human habitation, the first natural place for
people to live in was caves, Norman has
chosen a neolithical artist to make his point.
(Faltan risas en montaje)

8. TEAM FOUR

DEYAN
Norman would have stayed in America. He
was happy there. He felt at home there. He
had a job in San Francisco. But he kept in
touch with Richard Rogers and the idea of
forming a practice in London came up when
Rogers got a project. Norman joined him. He
could always go back if it didnt work. So
Norman got back on the plane and flew back to
Europe to discover that Team 4 wasnt exactly
this big professional office.
TONY HUNT 25:50
It was actually in Norman and Wendys flat. It
was in a house, you know in Hampstead Hill
Gardens. Ill never forget it. And they used to
have to reorganize the flat every morning to
turn it from a flat into an office. And of course if
they were having a client to see them, they had
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11

to do all sorts of things. I remember they had

this enormous great white wooden box that
covered the bed and they used to put models
on the box so it looked like a sort of display
unit. It really was a scream.
DEYAN
Team Four was where Foster met his first wife,
Wendy. They worked with Richard Rogers and
his first wife, Sue. And also Georgie Walton,
Wendys sister. It was a short-lived partnership
that lasted only three years. Their first big job
was the Reliance Controls Factory, just outside
Swindon, which was the first British hi-tech
building.
RICHARD ROGERS 26:40
The Reliance Controls was the first really
successful building in terms ofit won the
Financial Times award and we thought: Weve
made it. An inquiry we got, because
somebody wanted to know how to clean the
floor of the factory, so it didnt really make it.
NORMAN
It was an extraordinary time, almost like a pop
group in a way, where all the things that
brought these individuals together eventually
had the seeds of the things that would provoke
them to go in their own directions, in a
relatively short period afterwards.
9. INDUSTRIAL ARCHITECTURE OLSEN
FOTOS OF NORMAN & WENDY
DEYAN
Team Four split up, and it was time for a new
start. Norman & Wendy decided to stay in
London, and together they formed Foster
Associates.
NORMAN SPEAKING BEFORE AN AUDIENCE AT THE GREAT COURT
NORMAN
If I think back to 1967, then really Foster and
Partners was formed, or rather, it was at that
16 December 09

12

time two people: my late wife, Wendy, and I,

who formed Foster Associates. There were
only two problems. First of all, we had no work,
and there were no associates.
DEYAN
Without the connections that architects need to
get their first jobs, the one area in which
Norman thought he might get a foothold was
by going into the uncharted territory of
industrial architecture. The Olsen building was
the first serious thing Foster built on his own. In
those days, Britain was still divided between
the workers and the managers. They had
separate entrances and facilities. Olsen stood
out because it was trying to give the workers
something which was as good as everyone
else had. You could say it was a socially
utopian project.
NORMAN
The project for Fred Olsen became a turning
point in the sense that buildings like Willis
Faber, IBM, the Sainsbury Centre, all visited
that building that we did for Fred Olsen.
10. WILLIS FABER
DEYAN
The Willis Faber office building in Ipswich
looked a lot like a giant black glass grand
piano. Foster took a radical approach to
everything about it, how it looked, how it
worked, the techniques used to build it, the
comforts it offered its users. Its reduced energy
use...

NORMAN
How do you give glamour to an office building?
And in Willis Faber we sought to create a
lifestyle so it had a swimming pool in a town,
which at that time didnt have a public
swimming pool. It had an atrium. It had plants.
And part of that was the color and the shiny
ceiling which was a response in a way from
some lessons I learnt on the Olsen building. I
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13

remember the first time walking up the stairway

and seeing this green ceiling and thinking: My
god, what happened, I thought it was a white
ceiling, and of course it was a white ceiling, but
it was just sucking the colors. So this ceiling
was very subtle, I mean, extraordinary.

11. BUCKIMINSTER FULLER

BUBBLES AND FULLER ON THE BEACH
FULLER
I remember the first time ever looking back at
the wake of my ship and seeing all those, the
whiteness and the form of that Thats white
because it all consists of bubbles. I said, How
many bubbles am I looking at? Im looking at
fantastic numbers of bubbles. In comes in this
wave, look at all the whiteness, all those
bubbles. Beautiful, beautiful bubbles, every
one of them. I said Ive been taught at school,
in order to be able to design, because the
bubble is a sphere, you have to use Pi ()
DEYAN
Buckminster Fuller was the last of the
American eccentric geniuses, a messianic, eve
slightly odd figure, who roamed the world in his
bow tie giving speeches to students that
inevitably went on for at least five hours. Foster
jumped at the chance to work with Fuller, and
the two began a conversation that never
stopped until the day Fuller died.
VARIOUS ANGLES OF FULLERS CARDBOARD DOME

DEYAN
Fullers big idea was to do more with less, to
make the strongest structures using the least
amount of resources. He was an engineer, an
architect, an ecologist who defied any label. In
1951, he coined the phrase Spaceship
Earththe very image of humanity floating on
a fragile vessel, lost in the middle of space.
NORMAN
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14

I remember flying into a helicopter to the

Sainsbury Centre at the university of East
Anglia...
SHOTS OF NORMAN FLYING IN A HELICOPTER OF SAINSBURY CENTER
NORMAN
...and then we spent really quite a long time
walking around the building, going back into
the building through the spaces, talking about
it, and when you came back into the
restaurant, he drew attention to the way the
sun had moved, the shadows had changed.
And then he turned around to me and said:
How much does your building weigh,
Norman? And, of course, I didnt know the
answer.
AERIAL OF THE SAINSBURY CENTER
DEYAN
How much does your building weigh? And
even Norman was stunned into silence. But
being Norman, a week later, he had the
answer, 5328 tons, most of which was lost in
the invisible concrete substructure.
NORMAN
In the course of finding out how much the
building weighed, of course I realised the
disproportionate amount weight in the least
attractive part of the building. It was an
interesting voyage of discovery. So, in a way,
Bucky was always provoking, provoking
himself, challenging himself and challenging
everybody around him.
DEYAN
Some people would see Fuller as an
impossible dreamer with wild ideas about
covering Manhattan with a dome. On one level
Norman seems so different. Hes an architect
who seems to be the personification of the
organised and the ordered, and yet its clear
that Fuller made a real mark on Norman. And I
think the difference is that when Norman talks
about covering a city with a dome, you believe
he could.
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15

BBC OMNIBUS ARCHIVE FOOTAGE NORMAN & MATERIALS

NORMAN 33:33
Technology is the art of making things. High
technology is performance. And this particular
material is a high-performance material. A
three-foot brick wall... It weighs about half a
ton, a concrete wall nine inches, air cavity or
three brick walls with air gaps in between.
Except the concrete has so many overtones, I
mean it really is an unpleasant material. I mean
you know, it stains in the wet. It attracts graffiti,
no wonder its an aggressive material. This is a
sandwich panel, nice and light, weighs but a
few ounces, not half a ton, lets the light through
very beautifully. Compare that with this
concrete wall, half a ton of brick works. They
are all the same performance.

12. THE SAINSBURY CENTER & THE SAINSBURYS

DEYAN
The Sainsbury Center was a vision from
another planet, a stunning optimistic view of
what architecture could be. It was like an
elegant and refined machine that had the
classical precision of a Greek temple, sitting in
a green landscape. It was built to house the art
collection of Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, two
remarkable patrons who helped make Foster's
career possible.

SPENCER DE GREY 35:54

The really good buildings come out of a strong
dialogue between the architect and the client.
And the more pressure the client puts on the
architect, in a creative way, I think the better
the product. The work the Norman and the
team did at the Sainsbury Center was nitpicking and meticulous, going through every
issue. And I think it shows in the end product.
DEYAN
The Sainsburys and Foster developed a close
16 December 09

16

personal relationship. They became something

like surrogate parents. Finished in 1978,
Robert Sainsbury called the center the finest
thing in his collection.
ARCHIVE FOOTAGE OF THE SAINSBURY CENTER
DEYAN
If you could put the Sainsbury Centre next
HSBC, the Hong Kong and Shanghai bank in
Hong Kong...
CUT TO:

13. HSBC
THE UNDERBELLY OF THE HSBC, FOLLOWED BY A SERIES OF ANGLES
DEYAN
...you would see the difference between a
glider and a jumbo jet. They are both about
forms of flight, about new ways of dealing with
materials. The massive exposed structure, the
diagonal braces, the bridge structure of the
Hong Kong & Shanghai bank makes it a
weighty building; one which is soaring towards
the sky. Its powerful, its dynamic, where the
Sainsbury Centre is calm and floating.
It was the first time that anybody outside
America had made a skyscraper that looked
like it wasnt just a copy of an American
original.

DAVID NELSON 37:04

Everything has to be brought in to Hong Kong.
They dont build buildings there. The materials,
the skills and the expertise have historically
always been brought in from outside. And on
that project, we were very much encouraged to
try and find whatever was the best and most
appropriate throughout the whole world. So we
went of to America and Japan and Europe and
everywhere to try and bring the best things at
that moment in time for that project. And what it
taught us, really, is that there is a big world out
16 December 09

17

there.
DEYAN
Norman went back to first principles,
deconstructed the skyscraper and made his
own rules. He put the structure on the outside,
a move that created some remarkable spaces.
It was beautifully, built. And, it was a landmark
that was internationally recognized, a symbol
for the bank, and its commitment to Hong Kong
before the handover to China.
THE PACE PICKS UP AND WE END UP ON A NIGHT SHOT OF THE HSBC
NORMAN
Wed never done the tall building before so we
were hungry for the opportunity. But we also
borrowed up to the hilt. And we were taking
massive risks. And I suppose in a way you are
always taking risks. Then we were gambling, if
you like with the bank in the sense that if we
had not won that competition, we probably
wouldnt be having that conversation now.
Wed have gone bankrupt.

14. FOSTER ASSOCIATES, THE DEATH OF WENDY & BLACK FRIDAY

DEYAN
Norman had come a long way by the time that
he finished the bank. Hed transformed his life.
He'd become a very successful, very visible
architect. He had built an astonishing project in
Hong Kong which the world came to see. It
was called the most expensive building the
world had ever seen. He looked as if he was
the top of his game. But just when things
seemed to be going so well, some bad things
began to happen. The financial position of the
practice was seriously weakened with the end
of the monthly fee coming in from Hong Kong
to pay the overheads. There was a series of
black Fridays, he had to let people go, and he
began to worry even about being able to
survive.

PHOTO OF WENDY SHOT THROUGH A PRISM MOVES OUT THE FRAME,

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18

GOES TO BLACK.
DEYAN
At about the same time, Wendy, who'd been so
important to make the practice work, became
sick. She had cancer. She died.
NORMAN
It was a terrible time. And what can seem
absolutely tragic and devastating at the time,
still obviously has a tragic dimension if many
years later you look back on it. But on the other
hand, life has moved on, weve all moved on.
And you have a better measure of satisfaction,
of friendship, of love, of whatever...
15. NORMANS SOURCES OF INSPIRATION
ARCHIVE FOOTAGE OF NORMAN HIGH IN THE SKY INSIDE THE GLASS
BUBBLE OF A GLIDER CANOPY
NORMAN
Many times I think I need the silence. And its
not an escape. Its a kind of complimentary
activity. At times its so completely absorbing,
but there are other times when youre crosscountry skiing, when youre cycling, you can
reflect. And often I find solutions to designs.
There are many dimensions to those pursuits.
Obviously theyre about pleasure, but theyre
so inextricably linked with what I do as a
designer.
WE FINISH WITH NORMAN RIDING THE BIKE THROUGH THE
CASA DE CAMPO, THEN CUT TO:
16. NORMAN GOES GLOBAL THE BIG LEAGUESFOSTER AND
PARTNERS
A MONTAGE OF IMAGES OF FOSTER DESIGNS AND STRUCTURES
DEYAN
Foster has become placeless to quite an
extraordinary extent. Brushes with bankruptcy
have overshadowed many architects careers,
so once Foster had the chance to work outside
Britain, he saw building a global practice as the
16 December 09

19

key to survival. Downturns on one continent

can be compensated for by booms on another.
The experience of working on a worldwide
scale has transformed Foster, and his work.
You can see now that theres a certain level of
impatience with the way old Europe does
things. He wants to bring home what hes
learned.
NARINDER SAGOO
The approach is always to go there and to
experience it, and to live it. And to if its people,
you live with the people. You take your own human
camera, as it were. And theres no substitute or that.
Normans always taught us that, that you must do it,
which is one of the reasons why hes always the first
one on the sites.
A QUICK MONTAGE OF NORMAN GOING IN AND OUT OF BUILDINGS,
CARS, AIRCRAFT, TV INTERVIEWS. NORMAN WALKS INTO THE FRONT
DOOR AT BATTERSEA
THE FOSTER FAMILY POSING FOR A PHOTO IN SLOW MOTION 41:49

NORMAN
Its not a building. And its not the physicality of
a studio. Its the philosophy, the way in which
beyond my lifespan, that will move on and
have its own life. That I think is the most
difficult design of all, and the one Im most
proud of.
SHOTS OF ARCHITECTS AT WORK AT THE MAIN OFFICE IN BATTERSEA
NORMAN
It is a belief in a youth, in the energy of youth,
in the optimism of youth. And in the end, the
ultimate test is, Do you continue to attract the
greatest young talent. And wonderfully, the
average age is the same now as when we
were two or three people in 1967. Its still early
30s, 32.
BEN COWD 45:27
Youre thrown into the deep end. And I think
thats whats really interesting about this place
is how they integrate you into the process. And
16 December 09

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everyone becomes part of that process. All of

the projects here are always a journey. You
start very-- about the brief and the client.
Theres never a stylistic goal that comes from
Norman. He doesnt say it should look like
this and we develop it for the next years. Its a
whole journey. Its constantly changing and
developing.
A SERIES OF PHOTOS OF FOSTER GEMS
NORMAN
As a team, weve reinvented the genre, weve
reinvented the airport, weve reinvented the
nature of the high-rise building, reinvented the
relationship of the old and new in terms of how
you create a new life cycle for a historic
building, keeping the best of its identity from
the past and perhaps, all of this in one way or
another, reinvent ourselves in terms of
changing circumstances or from experience or
knowledge or feeding off of new challenges.

17. POWER & THE REICHSTAG 46:32

DEYAN
Architecture is also about power. It creates the
landmarks that cultures of very different kinds
have used throughout history to express who
and what they are.
NORMAN
Whether its, you know, the Golden Gate or
whether its Sidney Harbour, the bridge
becomes the symbol of the place, transcends
the original function and in that sense I think
that the way in which the Reichstag, for
example which was very much about creating
the democratic forum for reunified Germany
has become not only the symbol of the city but
its become the symbol of the nation.
ARCHIVE FOOTAGE OF THE RED ARMY STORMING THE REICHSTAG
DEYAN
The capture of the Reichstag at the end of
world war two was the defining image of
16 December 09

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Hitlers defeat. Its reconstruction by a British

architect was an equally powerful symbol of the
reunification of a very different, democratic
Germany.
THE REICHSTAG AS IT IS TODAY VARIOUS ANGLES
THE MODEL OF THE FIRST PROPOSAL
DEYAN
Fosters original proposal for the Reichstag
was a much larger structure. A giant roof
soared right across the top of what was left of
the original building in a kind of exorcism of
Germanys tortured past. It was too expensive
and he was asked for something smaller and a
lot cheaper. There was also a demand for a
symbolic memory of the dome that been
destroyed by the war.
SKETCHES OF ORIGINAL DOME AND NORMANS SKETCH OF THE NEW
DESIGN
NORMAN
I remember saying: There is no way Im going
to be a party to recreating a symbol that was of
the emperor past which was a symbol of
authoritarian, you know, the Kaiser would call
government as and when he felt it was
necessary. And instead what we proposed
was something that would work with the
ecology of the building, would work with the
winds, scoop air, would actually draw sun in,
would actually have a shade and would also
celebrate a kind of processional route to the
summit to the many visitors who would come to
the cupola.
DEYAN
The question for Foster is do you restore the
damage? Do you take whats left of the old
building and make it look new again? Or do
you show whats happened to that building?
Do you show its history? Do you keep the
Russian soldiers sometimes-obscene
messages written on the stone? In Fosters
view, of course you do, this is part of German
history. You cant wipe these things out.
16 December 09

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18. NORMAN ON THE INSIDE, HIS WORK ON THE OUTSIDE

VINCY NORMAN & EDUARDO PREPARE THE MODEL STEAMBOAT
EDUARDO
Daddy!
NORMAN
Yeah? Yeah but we need hmm yeah Is
this really hot water?
EDUARDO
Its actually very very hot?

NORMAN
Lets see
EDUARDO
Because I let it, like three minutes going.
NORMAN
Really? So you think its pretty hot.
EDUARDO
Yeah. Because I let it, like, three minutes
going. And take the glass.
NORMAN
All right. Ok can you put into here?
EDUARDO
The water?
NORMAN
Yeah
EDUARDO
All? For what is this?

NORMAN
For the boiler.
EDUARDO
To put this out?
16 December 09

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NORMAN
Its full. I think we can say categorically, its
more than full.
EDUARDO
Put this in down here?
NORMAN
Oh no we need put some fuel in.
EDUARDO
And what this?
NORMAN
It says the maximum 3 pieces. Im starting to
smell it. I hope it doesnt explode in our face.
EDUARDO
Why does it catch? How can it explode?
NORMAN
Little bit of experimentation is needed here.
Its getting hot. You can start smelling it.
EDUARDO
Is it the oil?
NORMAN
No, its water. Hey, its doing well there.
EDUARDO
What was that? Away, lets go. Yeah! Mummy!
NORMAN
Yeah, let me build up some steam because it
will do the whistle. Can you take it? Its
fantastic. Look at that.
THE SCENE ENDS WITH A WIDE SHOT OF THE BOAT MOVING FORWARD
IN THE POOL. MUSIC FADES UP AND WE CUT TO:
A SERIES OF ABSTRACT MODELS OF FORMS
DEYAN
Ever since he was a child, Normans been
fascinated by models. He makes them. He
collects them. In his house he has shelf after
shelf with exquisitely crafted models aircraft
16 December 09

24

and cars. And even as architecture becomes a

more and more a digital design process,
theyre a key part of his practice.
NIGEL DANCEY 54:14
As the computer started coming into the office,
and obviously everybody is working on
computers now, you started to wonder whether
the model shop would have a future. And you
would have same people at the model shop,
you kind of wondered how you would use
models. And whats interesting, although we
can do incredibly convincing computer
renderings of what spaces might be like, were
finding we are using more models than ever
before.
WE SEE A MODEL OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM
DEYAN
Models provide a physical, three-dimensional
crystallization of a design. They provide a
tangible step in the process of making an idea
into reality. They serve as prototypes and tests.
For Norman, its not simply about seeing how a
building will look. Its a means of understanding
what a full architectural experience will be.
SHOTS OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM, TRAFALGAR SQUARE, STANSTED,
MIXED WITH DETAILS OF SKETCHES
NORMAN
I believe that the infrastructure of spaces,
connections, the public domain, the kind of
urban glue that binds the buildings together is
more important than any one building.

SKETCHES OF STANSTED
NORMAN
Also, perhaps, trying to reinvent concepts like
an airport in such a way in which the
experience of an airport will be uplifting where,
really, an airport has gotten to the point where,
in terms of the combination of crowds and
security and so on, that its a kind of reviled
building type.
16 December 09

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19. AIRPORTS STANSTED HONG KONG BEIJING

VIDEO OF STANSTED
DEYAN
If Hong Kong marked a point of departure in
the evolution of the skyscraper, Stansted
began a new phase in airport design. At
Stansted, the terminal was turned upside
down, burying the machinery underground, a
move that transformed the rooftop into a giant
umbrella, liberating travelers from the
claustrophobic labyrinth of the traditional
departure lounge.
CHEP LAP KOK
DEYAN
The Stansted breakthrough took a step further
with the more refined Chep Lap Kok airport in
Hong Kong. In Chinas Olympic year, Fosters
approach to airport design whent even further
with Beijings new terminal three.
MOUZHAN AND NORMAN WALK UP TO THE BEIJING T3 TERMINAL
MOUZHAN
I think this place is going to become like a
viewing platform.
NORMAN
Well, well, well.
MOUZHAN
You can see the entire building, look all of it.
NORMAN
For the first time...
MOUZHAN
You can actually see the aircraft there, people
getting off, getting on...
NORMAN
Incredible.
16 December 09

26

MOUZHAN
And then here you would just see 40 aircraft on
this side, all lined up. You can see the whole...
NORMAN
We finally got the diagram.
WE SEE THE INTERIOR OF BEIJINGS T3
DEYAN
The airport is the modern city gate: a symbolic
national front door, reflecting the aspirations of
a culture. But negotiating the terminal is a
stressful, anxious experience for most
passengers. Much airport architecture just
adds to the confusion. A good airport is one
that is easy to understand, one that allows you
to move through it without having to ask for
directions, or look for signs. It celebrates travel,
rather than makes the journey an ordeal. If you
see an aircraft, the runway, and the sky
beyond, you have a natural orientation.

CAI GUO QIANG 57:52

It is a privilege to have that airport in Beijing. It
is the best Ive ever seen, When I go through, I
look up and the natural light fills the space and
I find that often times there is no need for
artificial light. Its an enclosed building but its
very soft and comfortable and the natural light
makes you feel as if youre outdoors. As an
artist, thats something that really touches me.
DEYAN
China wanted a building that would make a
strong statement about their countrys new
place in the world. Its the largest building on
the planet . Its architectural language is both
contemporary, and rooted in Chinas culture.
LORETTA LAW 59:00
The geometry of the roof is like an analogy of
like a crouching, lying dragon. Its very modest
looking but once you get inside its completely
overwhelming, completely the opposite of the
space that you would imagine.
16 December 09

27

DEYAN
Building Beijings new airport in just four years
was an astonishing achievement, only made
possible by a highly organized, 50.000 strong
work force. They lived on the site, working
three non-stop shifts, round-the-clock. At one
point there were 100 tower cranes on the site.
MOUZHAN 59:36
I remember doing the competitions for the
terminal 5 at Heathrow. And we didnt win. A
year and a half later, we did the competition or
Chep Lap Kok in Hong Kong. We won that
competition. I went out, we built the buildings.
The building operated for seven years before
terminal five at Heathrow opened. So, thats
how long things take in UK.
NORMAN
We now have a tremendous amount to learn
from the best of those emerging economies
and the way in which they are thinking big,
thinking strategically, taking bold initiatives.
The examples are, in a way, almost so
obvious, you just wonder why it takes so long
for the penny to drop.

20. CITIES
SHOTS OF THE STUDIO AT BATTERSEA
DEYAN
Building huge, complex projects under the
most difficult circumstances is an achievement
that has not come without a cost. When
Norman started, an office of 25 people was
considered big. Before the credit crunch,
Foster and Partners reached 1400. His critics
say that being big might make for more good
buildings, but not so many brilliant ones.
ANOTHER ANGLETHE CAMERA MOVING THROUGH THE OFFICE
DEYAN
For Foster a big office is a tool. It gives him the
resources to play a part in the key issue facing
an architect today: shaping the future of the
16 December 09

28

city. For the first time in history, the planet has

become majority urban. And the challenge for
an ambitious architect is to go on being
relevant in the face of such massive change.
Working at the scale of the individual building
doesnt seem enough to make a difference.
SHOTS OF HONG KONG, THE OCEAN, A FISHERMAN, AND THE SKYLINE
STEFAN 1:01:28
Man for thousands of years has actually lived
in harmony with nature. It is just the last
hundred years or 150 years that we have this
incredible urbanization taking place. The
farmer was very happy. He would be working
on his field, he would produce the food and
feed his family, a very sustainable cycle. If all
farmers move to the city, then you have a
problem.
RICKY BURDETT 1:01:47
And why? Why is this happening? Because
this guy will make three times as much by
selling peanuts at a traffic light than he would
working in the field in some remote district. And
thats why the landscape of many of the cities
that weve been studying show so much of this
informal, street vendors, people who have to
adapt and respond.
STEFAN 1:02:27
And the problem is how you feed all these
people, and how you feed them with energy,
with food, gas, electricity, the way they move
around in their cars, in a sustainable way.
STEFAN BEHLING AT THE IVORYPRESS CONFERENCE
STEFAN
We all have dreams, and they come from
television programs, you know, nice people,
pool, happy children, lawn, driveway. If this is
what you want, this is what youre going to get.
DEYAN
In the west, the industrial revolution took 200
years. In China, this change will take place in
just a few decades. So architects must not only
16 December 09

29

help plan cities that address the way that

mankind is making the planet uninhabitable;
they need to do it quickly.
21. MASDAR
DEYAN
Masdar City in Abu Dhabi is an attempt to
show how that might be done. In the 50
degree desert heat, its a hugely ambitious plan
for a carbon neutral city of 100.000 people.
JURGEN HAPP 1:03:15
It is actually the idea of creating a Silicon
Valley of clean tech. As in Silicon Valley the
seed is a university where you get the new
knowledge, the new research. And then,
companies settle around and benefit from the
research.
DEYAN
Masdar will combine homes with jobs. It will
generate its own power, and treat its own
waste. The materials and methods used in
construction aim to maximize recycling, and
minimize carbon footprints. At first glance, the
project seems like something from a sciencefiction comic Norman read as a boy. But much
of it is based on some very traditional ideas
that were abandoned or forgotten with the
advent of cheap fossil fuels. Movement in the
city will rely on a network of driverless electric
vehicles, guided by invisible sensors, running
across the city at ground level, while
pedestrians circulate on a deck above.
GERARD 1:04:17
If vehicles are going to become more efficient
and driverless, and theyre going follow
networks and be programmable, then you have
to separate them from the human because the
human is unpredictable. Thats why the city is
lifted. Thats going to be revolutionary for
transportation.
DAVID NELSON 1:04:38
To put 15 billion dollars into focusing on a
center or renewable technologies, and to
16 December 09

30

spend oil money, which is there now, on it with

the foresight thinking 20 or 30 years down the
line is unbelievable. Why arent we doing that?
DEYAN
Will Masdar be the first carbon neutral city in
the world? We dont know yet. If it works, its a
huge achievement; if it fails, its a heroic failure.
NORMAN AT THE IVORYPRESS CONFERENCE IN MADRID
NORMAN 1:05:21
If we achieve a zero waste, zero carbon, then
that will be a kind of miracle. The tragedy is
that given the urgency of the situation, given
what is at stake, which is literally our survival
as a species, the thing that I find inexplicable is
that there is only one Masdar. You know, if
there were twenty urban experiments in terms
of twenty cities happening around the planet
now, one would be very, very critical and say:
Why only twenty? That is the shocking thing.
That is unbelievable... The big issues in terms
of coupling all this together can only be a
political initiative. And I think that probably
youll have to get almost to the point of
desperation before everybody is forced to get
their act together. And then the agonizing
question will be: Did everybody wake up in
time, or did they wake up too late?

22. NORMAN, THE CRITICS & HEALTH

A SERIES OF PHOTOS OF NORMAN
DEYAN
Normans earlier career was a honeymoon, a
love affair with the critics because he produced
work which was photogenic, very fresh, very
successful. And then of course there always
comes a moment when someone has to say
well just a minute, Havent we seen this
before? Is this becoming over exposed?
Maybe hes treading water. Maybe this is
becoming self-parody. Maybe a world end to
end covered in Fosterism is not such a great
idea...
16 December 09

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NORMAN
Its not what you read in the press. Its not
about an award. Its not about somebody
saying well done. Sometimes somebody will
say nice things about something youve done
and, in truth, you dont really think you deserve
it. Other times you dont win a competition or
you get a bad review but you know yourself if
youve done justice to it, it really doesnt
matter. Of course we all love praise so were
all vulnerable in that sense. Were all human.
NORMAN OUT ON THE SKI SLOPES
DEYAN
What on earth is a man in his seventies doing
pushing himself to the extremes of the crosscountry marathon? Its painful to do it. Once,
he was wearing the wrong kind of gloves and
he got frostbite. It took him six months to
recover but he did it again the year after, and
the year after that. It hurts. Its also a very
isolated thing to do. Yes youre surrounded
by all the other people in the marathon but
you are alone in the physical determination.
You have to finish.
NORMAN
I suppose that Ive, until relatively recently,
been immune from illness so the idea of a
hospital, of drugs, of an operation was an alien
concept. Ten years ago I was diagnosed with
cancer. That was pretty horrific, that was
probably the worst moment of my life, one of
the worst. I remember struggling through the
idea, struggling through the forty-eight hours
before I was rushed to hospital. I remember
being told at the time that I was fortunate
because it could have been a heart attack.
Little was I to know that two years later Id have
a heart attack. And the thing that perhaps was
important to me was the idea that at the end of
that six months, I would still be able to train for
the cross-country ski marathon. And I was told
by the doctor forget it, youll never do it in six
months, youll have relapses, itll take longer.
The reality was that I did it to the day in six
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32

months, so I think that in some ways a stage of

denial is perhaps at times helpful. Having
survived the operation, the chemotherapy, I
remember the marathon and then shortly after
that I had a check. And I remember coming
back in a car from the airport and wondering
why the doctor hadnt called to give the results
of the check, so I called the doctor. We
stopped the car. I got out. And he said Ive got
bad news for you and I remember saying what
does that means, tell me the truth. And he said
youve got maximum three months to live. That
I think was the worst moment ever.
DEYAN
Like so many other challenges, Norman came
through that health crisis. The constant thing
about Norman is that he will not stop. He will
not let himself get beaten down by things. He
will always pick himself up, he will always start
again, and there is always another turn in the
Foster story.
NORMAN
Everything is a fresh start. I mean Id love to
do every project that Ive ever looked at and
have a second bite at it because you can
always go one step further. And if you cant go
one step further, then it means that you havent
learned from what youve done before and
youre not sharp. Then its time to say stop
and do something else.
FADE TO BLACK.
CREDITS.

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