Title & Author:

Exploring the City / [presented by] Norman Foster (Foster + Partners).

Publication:

London, England : Pidgeon Digital, 2001.

Description:

1 online resource (1 video file (43 minutes)) : sound, color

Notes:
Norman Foster -- The Campo In Siena, Tuscany -- Solar House -- Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank. Section -- Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank. Sketch. Top: The Banking Hall. Bottom: Ground Level -- Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank. Green Area Behind Bank -- Commerzbank, Frankfurt. View & Section -- Commerzbank, Frankfurt. A Four Storey High Garden -- Small Site In The City Of London -- The Building's Influence On The Environment At The Base Of The Building -- Wind Turbine & Windmill -- Hong Kong Airport, As Seen From The Air -- Sainsbury Centre. Sketch & Views -- Stansted Airport. Sectional Diagram -- Stansted Airport. Baggage Hall -- Trafalgar Square, London. Left: As It Is. Right: As Proposed -- Space Syntax's Traffic Diagram -- British Museum. Entrance To The Great Court -- The Reichstag, Berlin. Night View & Sketch Of Dome -- The Reichstag, Berlin. Energy Diagram -- The Reichstag, Berlin. The Dome's Cone At Public Level -- The Reichstag, Berlin. The Dome's Cone From The Chamber Below -- House In Engadine Valley, Switzerland.

Summary:

In this abridged version of a talk given by Norman Foster at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University of London, on 15 June 2001, he explores his interests and identifies four themes: spaces and routes, lights and lightness, ecology, and density and sprawl. Using examples of the work of his practice to illustrate how these interweave, he goes into considerable detail in cases that range in scale from airport to a wind-turbine; from the plan of a whole section of a city to how to heat or cool a building. The major proposition is about how seeking higher quality of urban life through higher densities liberates open space. And he concludes that "in terms of quality of environment, those higher density settlements probably account for some of the most affluent areas on the planet".

Subject:

Architecture, Modern 20th century.
Architecture 20e siècle.
Architecture, Modern.

Added entries:

Foster, Norman, 1935-, narrator.