September 8 to December 9, 2001

Norman Foster "The Architect Studio" is the third in a series of exhibitions at the Louisiana Museum that offers an insight into the architect's work processes, methods, and sources of inspiration.
The series have so far included Frank O. Gehry and Henning Larsen.

Photo: Kirsten Kiser
The Big Gallery at the Louisiana Museum

Foster and Partners, led by Lord Foster and four partners, is an International architecture and design practice with offices worldwide. The Main Design Studio, on the Thames riverside in London is open, as a work space, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Studio is huge with its own model workshop, graphics department and photography studio and more than 550 architects working on projects world wide.
Most of the staff work at long desks in the main design studio with its tall panorama windows overlooking the Thames. No employee has a private office, including Lord Foster and his partners. The long tables dominating the work space are filled with computers, sketches, drawings, models and material samples.
Consultations with clients are held in an area along the large panorama window in the midst of the ongoing experiments.

Swiss Re Headquarters, London (1997 - 2004)

The exhibition, designed by Lord Foster, shows the path from idea to realization, the dialogue between architects, engineers, model makers, computer operators and contractors.
A major part in all recent projects is the coupling of technological and ecological concerns. To achieve its goals, the firm makes use of the very newest technologies.
To illustrate as clearly as possible the wide range of Foster and Partners work, and the challenges it presents at all levels, the exhibition concentrates on three projects, each on a different scale. The two building projects are still under construction.

Montage courtesy Norman Foster & Partners
The new headquarters of Swiss Re; the world’s largest insurance company, in the heart of the city of London.

Photo: Kirsten Kiser
The Chesa Futura apartments in St. Moritz at the Louisiana exhibition

Photo courtesy Norman Foster & Partners
The Nomos table and desk system for the firm Tecno.

Lord Foster was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1999. Among Foster & Partners latest commissions are some of the most remarkable architectural projects of recent years, including the reconstruction of the Reichstag in Berlin, the design of the Great Court at the British Museum in London, the Millennium Bridge (the first new Thames crossing for more than 100 years), and the new Hong Kong International Airport - the world’s largest airport terminal. Many of these esthetically and technologically groundbreaking projects are based on ecology-conscious concepts, setting new standards for the interaction of buildings with their environment.

The exhibition is curated by Kjeld Kjeldsen of the Louisiana Museum. The exhibition catalog, the third in The Architect’s Studio series, features an article on the Swiss Re project, ”The Coming of the Cosmic Skyscraper”, by architecture critic and author Charles Jencks, and an article on Norman Foster’s studio, ”The Politics of Architecture”, by Jonathan Glansey, architecture and design editor of The Guardian.

Danish artist Per Arnoldi has designed the graphics and the poster for the exhibition. Arnoldi was the color and graphics consultant on Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt and the Reichstag in Berlin. Arnoldi will give a lecture at the Louisiana Museum on Wednesday November 7 entitled ”Working with Norman Foster”.

September 2, 2001

The newest Foster Collection, a "stunning range of sanitary ware" which also features wash basins, taps and bidets were recently premièred at a design fair in Frankfurt.
Independent