a strange gem. Norman Foster of the UK firm Foster and Partners driving Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion car.
Read more here: http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20110318/qa-norman-foster-and-the-dymaxion-car and here: http://www.metropolismag.com/story/20110315/one-for-the-road
This exhibition includes two hundred drawings chart half a century devoted to architecture. From his formative years to the leadership of a firm that builds around the world, the dialogue between the eye and the hand through a pencil has been for Norman Foster a tool of analysis and pedagogy, useful for the conception of the works and the explanation of his intentions. Since many of the initial sketches are contained in the notebooks that the architect always carries, the exhibition includes fifty of them; and since all this graphic production is nothing but a device for the construction of buildings, displayed here are also half a dozen models that remind of the three-dimensional nature of architecture, no matter how often it begins in the humble two-dimensional support that paper provides. But a close observation of the traces can shed light on the creative process that has given rise to some of the masterpieces of the 20th century, and also show the capacity of architecture to improve our cities and our lives. Becoming an architect. Drawing towards the project: The sketching of vernacular, historical and contemporary buildings during his European travels is the training ground for the development of the analytical and imaginative skills that will allow the student to undertake his first projects, in his home city of Manchester and later at Yale University. The 60s. First experiences and works for industrial democracy: Established in London as Team 4, a young Foster built innovative residential works in Cornwall, soon to give way to his fascination with the logic of industry, initiating his independent career with a social centre in the Docks that gathers blue-and white-collar workers under one same roof. The 70s. The cult of precision in monuments of technology: The sophisticated, neutral and egalitarian containers that sheltered together people and machines at IBM, work and leisure at Willis Faber, art objects and teaching at Sainsbury, are replaced at the end of the decade by the structural expressionism of the Hong Kong Bank, his most popular work. The 80s. Light construction, between memory and territory: The airplane lover found in airports and aviation museums the occasion to explore a new lightness, which also asserts its presence in the high-rise works and in his interventions in historic city centres and heritage buildings, where the architect daintily respects the collective memory deposited in them. The 90s. The hearts of our cities and the power of design: Combining technical excellence with ecological awareness, be it in urban planning, infrastructures or industrial design, Foster transforms the skyline and the sidewalks of London, raises in Germany the tallest European structure and rebuilds the Reichstag, transforming an ominous icon into a symbol of hope. The 21st century. A global reach and a global responsibility: From Switzerland to Sierra Leone, and from the Gulf to Beijing, the work of Foster + Partners is still guided by the trace of the architect, which glides effortlessly from the titanic scale to the smallest projects, attentive to his responsibility with the planet and with his own creative journey. www.ivorypress.com