Lord Norman Foster has been announced as the recipient of the 2025 Andrée Putman Lifetime Achievement Award by the Créateurs Design Awards. The award, now it its fifth edition, recognizes Foster's significant contributions to urban design and the environmental movement within architecture. This recognition highlights his longstanding influence and contributions to the field since founding Foster + Partners in 1967. The award ceremony will take place in Paris on January 18th, 2025.
As Kharkiv embarks on the long road to recovery following the devastating conflict in Ukraine, a global design competition has been initiated by the Norman Foster Foundation and Buildner to reimagine one of the city's most significant landmarks—Freedom Square. A symbol of Soviet-era urban planning, the square, along with the Regional Administration Building, was heavily damaged by a missile strike on March 1, 2022. The attack left the building in ruins and the square scarred by conflict.
Architecture has long been understood as a powerful tool for shaping the physical environment and social dynamics within it. However, its potential to foster social equity is often overlooked. Empathy-driven design invites architects to approach their work not only as creators of space but as facilitators of human connection and community well-being. This approach centers on understanding people's lived experiences, struggles, and aspirations — particularly marginalized communities — and responding to their needs through thoughtful, inclusive architecture. It goes beyond aesthetics and functionality, instead focusing on creating spaces fostering dignity, accessibility, and social equity. By prioritizing empathy, architects can design environments that uplift communities, address disparities, and create inclusive spaces that promote positive societal change in a tangible, human-centered way.
The relationship between architecture and naval design has been a fascinating interplay of form and function that has evolved significantly. Both disciplines have a shared history of innovation, aesthetics, and functionality that have informed and inspired each other. This "love affair" has seen architects drawing inspiration from boats, particularly in the modernist era when ships' streamlined, efficient designs influenced the aesthetic of buildings. Conversely, architectural principles have also been adapted to enhance the functionality and form of boats, demonstrating a reciprocal exchange that continues to shape both disciplines.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, two hijacked commercial jetliners struck the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan, a third plane struck the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in rural Pennsylvania. A total of 2.977 people were killed in the terrorist attacks. In the face of this unprecedented loss, the city of New York promised to rebuild Lower Manhattan as a lively neighborhood while honoring and maintaining the memory of this day. Thus began one of the largest reconstruction projects in New York City, a process that is still ongoing now, 23 years after the tragedy.
The Design Educates Awards 2024 has just announced the winners of this year’s winners, celebrating projects that excel in addressing complex social and environmental challenges while carrying significant educational value. Held annually, the awards recognize projects that respond to social and environmental issues and promote sustainability, even if the educational impact is gradual. In fact, it aims to highlight projects that offer long-term value and address the complexities of modern life.
Madrid, the vibrant capital of Spain, offers a blend of tradition and modernity, reflected in its diverse architectural heritage. This rich past is etched into the old façades, expansive public spaces, and historic religious institutions that define much of Madrid’s character today. The city’s continuous architectural renewal, reflected in both respectful restorations and innovative new constructions, highlights Madrid’s commitment to preserving its heritage while embracing modernity.
In the 20th century, Madrid embraced modernity, influenced by movements such as Rationalism, the International Style, and Brutalism. Today, Madrid is a showcase for contemporary design, where contemporary projects by renowned architects coexist with its historical legacy. Structures like the CaixaForum by Herzog & de Meuron and Jean Nouvel’s Reina Sofía Museum exemplify the city’s interest in architectural explorations
Foster + Partners has debuted their first-ever exhibition in Korea at the Seoul Museum of Art. Marking a significant moment for the studio and its relationship to South Korea, the exhibition “Future Positive” showcases the work of Norman Foster and Foster + Partners to Korean audiences for the first time. On display from April 25th until July 21st, 2024, visitors will have the opportunity to explore the comprehensive showcase of Foster’s architectural journey from 1967 to the present day.
Foster + Partners, led by Norman Foster, has revealed designs for a new “vertical creative office” campus on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, overlooking Hollywood. Developed by real estate firm The Star LLC, the tower is wrapped in spiraling gardens, giving the project its distinctive image and introducing generous outdoor areas throughout. Dubbed “The Star,” the project strives to use active and passive design strategies to bring a welcoming and comfortable space for all future users.
The Pritzker Prize is the most important award in the field of architecture, awarded to a living architect whose built work "has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity through the art of architecture." The Prize rewards individuals, not entire offices, as took place in 2000 (when the jury selected Rem Koolhaas instead of his firm OMA) or in 2016 (with Alejandro Aravena selected instead of Elemental); however, the prize can also be awarded to multiple individuals working together, as took place in 2001 (Herzog & de Meuron), 2010 (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA), and 2017 (Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem, and Ramon Vilalta of RCR Arquitectes).
As cities grow and evolve, the question of preserving, rehabilitating, or adapting historic sites arises. The intervention in such buildings requires a delicate balance between honoring their heritage and meeting contemporary demands. Often, the most innovative and radical solutions emerge when architects attempt to renew a building while maintaining its original footprint and as many features as possible. They then create modern extensions that either harmonize or contrast with the original structure. This approach not only revitalizes the building but also celebrates the synergy between the past and present, including materials, construction technology, architectural movements, stories, and overall building quality. The layering of both old and new elements through harmony or contrast requires an intelligent and sensitive approach that gives the building a unique aesthetic and a new meaning.
The Pritzker Architecture Prize has released the ceremony video to honor of the 2023 Laureate of the prestigious Pritzker Prize, Sir David Chipperfield. Following the announcement from earlier this year, the ceremony was held on November 14th at the Ancient Agora of Athens, presented and sponsored by the Hyatt Foundation. It included the 2023 Laureate Lecture and Panel Discussion, where David Alan Chipperfield was joined by Francis Kéré, the 2022 Laureate, and Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, the 2021 Laureates.
Chris Bosse started LAVA, Laboratory for Visionary Architecture, with his partners Tobias Wallisser and Alexander Rieck the year Watercube, the Aquatics Centre for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics was completed. Bosse was one of the leading designers of Watercube when he worked at PTW Architects in Sydney. Now LAVA employs about 100 people in four offices in Ho Chi Minh City, Sydney, Stuttgart, and Berlin. There are also two satellite offices in Honduras and Parma, Italy, led by former associates. Projects range from furniture to houses and hotels to master plans, urban centers, and airports in the Middle East, Central America, Europe, Australia, and Vietnam.
Landscape architecture is having a moment. The latest proof: last week, the US Department of Homeland Security decided to accredit the field with its prestigious STEM designation. As part of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational disciplines that fall under this category, landscape architecture students can now spend an additional 24 months seeking employment and training post-graduation in the United States after an initial period of a year granted to all graduates. The title also promises more prestige, higher entry salaries, and additional career flexibility. Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), calls the development a significant advancement for 'landscape architecture education and practice, and that is great for America and the global community.'
The news corresponds to a growing emphasis on landscape architecture as a pivotal practice around the globe in recent years – one that is closely connected to notions of public health, environmental design, biophilia, sustainability, and re-wilding. It also underlines the intimate relationship between technology and the discipline. Landscape proposals increasingly rely on advanced science and technology to predict how ecological interventions might alter an existing terrain and determine what measures will yield the highest benefit for both humans and nature. The contemporary ideal of wild meadows and biodiverse forests may exist free from external influence, but the path to get there requires assistance.
This is an edited excerpt by Philip Jodidio from TASCHEN’s upcoming title Norman Foster.
In a 2007 conference, Norman Foster stated: “As an architect you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown." That talk was about the green agenda, which he termed the most important issue of the day, affirming that it is “not about fashion but about survival.” Admittedly, the rise in public interest in contemporary architecture that followed the creation of the Pritzker Prize in 1979 (Foster was the 1999 winner) has been focused on forms and personalities more than on substance. Philip Johnson, the first winner of the shiny award, made his view clear: “Architecture is art, nothing else.” Essays, magazines, and books have delighted in the foibles, verbal and sartorial, of celebrated architects, the hats, and eyeglasses of genius. Of course, figures like Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier did not wait for a prize to be famous, and it seems fitting that Wright’s literary alter-ego, Howard Roarke, would say: “Art is a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist’s metaphysical value judgments." The modern architect/artist as demiurge, responsible for fashioning and maintaining the universe: “…how like an Angel in apprehension, how like a God?”
The largest exhibition of Norman Foster’s work to date, hosted by the Centre Pompidou, explores six decades of the architect’s illustrious career through a host of revealing sketchbooks, drawings, images, original models, and videos. The exhibition was designed by Norman Foster and executed with Foster + Partners and the Norman Foster Foundation. A custom-made series of modular display cases was designed by Norman Foster and a team from the Norman Foster Foundation and engineered by Goppion, world leader in the manufacture and installation of museum display cases, to display the architect’s sketchbooks and transparencies.
During the 2023 Architectural Biennale in Venice, Holcim and the Norman Foster Foundation will announce the start of their Essential Houses Research Project. Through this collaboration, the Norman Foster Foundation created necessary housing to give displaced communities safety, comfort, and welfare while allowing them to live in temporary settlements for over 20 years. To make sustainable buildings accessible to everyone, Holcim constructed these necessary homes using various green products, such as Elevate Insulation Boards and ECOPact low-carbon concrete.
