norman foster

norman foster. few architects have had a more direct experience of the impact of globalisation on the city than norman foster...............................

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norman foster

office

foster and partners is an international architecture
and design practice - one of the largest in europe –
with project offices worldwide.

led by lord foster and four partners
- spencer de grey, david nelson, ken shuttleworth,
and graham phillips.

its main design studio is located on the thames riverside
in london, and this is where each new project is begun.
as a workplace, it is open 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
even by international standards, the studio is huge,
with more than 600 architects working on something
like 100 projects all over the globe.
it is essentially one large open space, shared equally
by everyone, and free of subdivisions to encourage
good communication between the many people who
work there. professionally, it is a self-sufficient world
with its own model workshop, graphics department and
photographic studio.

most of the staff work at long desks in the main
design studio with its tall panorama windows overlooking
the thames. everyone - whatever their job-description -
has a place at one of the long workbenches;
the arrangement is very fluid with no division
between design and production.
no employee has a private office, including
foster and his partners.
consultations with clients are held in an area along the
large panorama window, in the midst of ongoing
experiments with models and mock-ups.
the long tables are filled with computers, sketches,
drawings, models and samples of materials.

the average age of the 600 staff is about 30
and many languages are spoken in the studio.

most offices keep visitors at arm's length.
the foster studio, in contrast, is completely open.
visitors can enjoy the bar - the social focus of
the studio - and meetings, whether formal or informal,
occur in the midst of the creative process itself.