SPOTLIGHT: NORMAN FOSTER

Arguably the leading name of a generation of internationally nationally high- profile British architects,
Norma- Foster (born 1 June 1935)- or to give him his full title Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster
of Thames Bank of Reddish, OM, HonFREng- gained recognition as early as the 1970s as a key
architect in the high- tech movement, which continues to have a profound impact on architecture as
we know it today.
Foster’s architecture is remarkably diverse: he ha: designed skyscrapers, offices, galleries, airports
stadiums, parliament buildings, city masterplans and even a spaceport. Yet his work is unified by one
theme, identified in the jury citation for his 1993 Pritzker Prize: “from his very first projects, it was
evident that he would embrace the most advance: technology appropriate to the task.” It is this
devotion to the latest architectural technology that earned him his place in the High-Tech movement
with buildings such as the Willis Faber & Dumas headquarters and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual
Arts.