Kagan McLeod for The National
Kagan McLeod for The National

Newsmaker: Norman Foster



Today, what’s fast becoming one of the architectural world’s most high-profile double acts will take to the world’s largest stage for the opening of Expo 2015 in Milan.

For the second time in five years, the UAE will present an image of itself to the world using a national pavilion designed by Foster + Partners, the British architectural firm responsible for the UAE pavilion at the Shanghai Expo in 2010.

Like its counterpart in Shanghai, the Milan pavilion makes reference to the UAE’s landscape, simultaneously looking backwards and forwards to create an image of the country that combines the natural with the man-made and tradition with the technological cutting edge.

The result is a Janus-faced ­effect that defines not just the pavilion but its designer as well, the 79-year-old English architect Norman Foster, a man described variously as the “Mozart of modernism”, the “Valentino of his profession” and the “high-priest of high-tech”.

Foster is often described in contradictory and contrasting terms. For some, the Pritzker Architecture Prize winner is an innovator and an architectural radical, a man who alongside his lifelong friend and one-time collaborator Sir Richard Rogers helped to define modern ­architecture as the public understands it today.

For others, Foster is a safe pair of hands, renowned for delivering impressive but impersonal projects on budget and on time, but whose buildings, for all of their technological bells and whistles, deliver only a semblance of change.

More often, the architect is described as a ruthless and fiercely driven control-freak, an impression that isn’t undermined by his Bond-villain looks, his love of yachts and airplanes, and his penchant for flying his own gliders, helicopters and jets.

Foster is on record as saying that he does not recognise "the severe and cold man described in interviews", and has suggested that his "aloofness" is a symptom of a certain awkwardness – shyness not disdain. "It's something I've had to overcome," he told The Financial Times's Emma Jacobs in 2011.

Foster’s sense of being a perennial outsider doesn’t seem to have harmed his career. A multimillionaire, he’s the head of the United Kingdom’s largest architectural practice, with offices in 14 countries and projects all over the world.

An only child, Norman Robert Foster was born in Reddish, near Stockport, on June 1, 1935, but his father moved the family to Levenshulme, a tough, working-­class neighbourhood nearer Manchester, when Foster was young. Interested in books and something of a dreamer, Foster was noticeably different from his peers and had to cope with bullying from an early age.

"I always felt different and retired into the world of books, and, of course like many boys, was fascinated by aircraft, locomotives and machinery. Manchester was one of the workshops of the world at the time, so it would have been hard not to be," he told The Guardian newspaper in 1999.

Leaving school at 16, Foster worked as a clerk at Manchester Town Hall, then served in the Royal Air Force, before enrolling to study architecture at the University of Manchester in 1956.

Winning a postgraduate scholarship to study at Yale in 1961 proved possibly the most important award that Foster has ever received. Not only did he meet Richard Rogers in the United States, but he also discovered the lightweight structures of the great American inventor Buckminster Fuller, with whom he would collaborate in later years.

Back in the UK, Foster and Rogers established their first studio in 1963. Called Team 4, it included their respective wives, Su Brumwell and Wendy Cheesman, and together they designed the Reliance Controls Factory in Swindon, the first “high-tech” building in the UK.

In 1967, Foster and Cheesman set out on their own, establishing the business that eventually became Foster + Partners in 1992.

The 1974 Willis, Faber & Dumas headquarters in Ipswich made the architect’s name in the UK, but it was the commission to design a new Hong Kong headquarters for HSBC that saved them from bankruptcy and provided Foster with his international calling card. When it was completed in 1985, it was then the most expensive building yet made, at a cost of £5 ­billion.

From that point on, Foster + Partners never looked back, as a string of high-profile commissions followed, including the Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt, the Beijing Capital International Airport and the Hearst Tower in New York.

Some critics have dismissed Foster + Partners as designers in pursuit of superlatives – to be biggest, highest, tallest or longest – but there are certain things most commentators agree on.

"Norman Foster is the single most successful British architect in history, whether success is measured by the size of his office, fame, honours, global reach or number of projects," wrote the critic Rowan Moore in a 2002 profile for Prospect magazine. "And this is to say nothing of the icons and airports he has bestowed on Hong Kong, Berlin, Barcelona, Nîmes, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Singapore, Glasgow, Cambridge and Omaha, Nebraska. Few, if any, living Britons have the international stature in their fields that Foster has in his."

Foster now occupies a position reserved for a small group of “starchitects”, thanks to a series of projects that combine symbolism with a heroic elegance.

The German Reichstag in Berlin is one such project, as is the 270-metre-high, cloud-capped Millau Viaduct in the south of France.

In London alone, Foster + Partners are responsible for projects that include the current Wembley Stadium, the British Museum’s Great Court, the pedestrianised plaza on the north side of Trafalgar Square, the instantly recognisable Gherkin and the pedestrian Millennium Bridge across the Thames.

But when it comes to national identity and state, there’s no stronger special relationship than the one he has forged with the UAE and its rulers. As well as the UAE’s recent Expo pavilions, Foster + Partners were also responsible for the original master plan of Masdar and the design for the Masdar Institute. Foster is also responsible for the Index Tower, his only project in Dubai, and Abu Dhabi’s tallest tower, the 92-storey, 382-metre-high Burj Mohammed bin Rashid, which rises from the Foster-­designed World Trade Center complex, also developed by Aldar, that stands on the site of Abu Dhabi’s original souq.

The most prestigious of Foster’s UAE commissions, however, has to be the Zayed National Museum, which is intended to sit alongside Abu Dhabi’s Louvre and Guggenheim as the centrepiece of the Saadiyat Island Cultural District. Part-monument, part-memorial, the museum has been designed to evoke the UAE’s natural landscapes and the feathers of a falcon’s wing, promising to be Foster’s most important attempt to render Emirati identity in concrete, glass and steel.

What’s the secret to Foster’s phenomenal success? One possibility was revealed in 2012 in a series of short films that provided behind-the-scenes insight into how starchitects win work. The films recorded the pitches made by four of the world’s most famous architects as they presented designs for 425 Park Avenue, a commercial tower destined for the heart of Manhattan.

One by one, Rem Koolhaas, Zaha Hadid, Richard Rogers and Foster presented to the L&L Holding Company; one by one, the first three personalities on that list failed to connect.

Enter Foster, calm and dressed for business, describing his project down to the last-minute detail, as if he had been personally responsible for every stage of its design.

Calm, reassuring and very ­human, Foster speaks in an eloquent manner that immediately puts his audience at ease. “Trust me,” his manner seems to say. “I know what I’m doing. Just think about all of those other remarkable statements I’ve built.”

Needless to say, it was the pitch by one of the world’s great communicators, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, that ultimately won the day.

nleech@thenational.ae

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The specs

  Engine: 2-litre or 3-litre 4Motion all-wheel-drive Power: 250Nm (2-litre); 340 (3-litre) Torque: 450Nm Transmission: 8-speed automatic Starting price: From Dh212,000 On sale: Now

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

RESULT

Los Angeles Galaxy 2 Manchester United 5

Galaxy: Dos Santos (79', 88')
United: Rashford (2', 20'), Fellaini (26'), Mkhitaryan (67'), Martial (72')

COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
Mario Benedetti, Penguin Modern Classics

 

Concrete and Gold
Foo Fighters
RCA records

The specs: 2018 Opel Mokka X

Price, as tested: Dh84,000

Engine: 1.4L, four-cylinder turbo

Transmission: Six-speed auto

Power: 142hp at 4,900rpm

Torque: 200Nm at 1,850rpm

Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L / 100km

Champions parade (UAE timings)

7pm Gates open

8pm Deansgate stage showing starts

9pm Parade starts at Manchester Cathedral

9.45pm Parade ends at Peter Street

10pm City players on stage

11pm event ends

Our legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants

Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
 
Started: 2021
 
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
 
Based: Tunisia 
 
Sector: Water technology 
 
Number of staff: 22 
 
Investment raised: $4 million 
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl turbo

Power: 201hp at 5,200rpm

Torque: 320Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm

Transmission: 6-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 8.7L/100km

Price: Dh133,900

On sale: now 

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Heather, the Totality
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Duterte Harry: Fire and Fury in the Philippines
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Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash

Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.

Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.

Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.

Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.

Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.

The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer

Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000

Engine 3.6L V6

Transmission: Six-speed automatic

Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm

Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm

Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km

The Brutalist

Director: Brady Corbet

Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn

Rating: 3.5/5

If you go

 

  • The nearest international airport to the start of the Chuysky Trakt is in Novosibirsk. Emirates (www.emirates.com) offer codeshare flights with S7 Airlines (www.s7.ru) via Moscow for US$5,300 (Dh19,467) return including taxes. Cheaper flights are available on Flydubai and Air Astana or Aeroflot combination, flying via Astana in Kazakhstan or Moscow. Economy class tickets are available for US$650 (Dh2,400).
  • The Double Tree by Hilton in Novosibirsk ( 7 383 2230100,) has double rooms from US$60 (Dh220). You can rent cabins at camp grounds or rooms in guesthouses in the towns for around US$25 (Dh90).
  • The transport Minibuses run along the Chuysky Trakt but if you want to stop for sightseeing, hire a taxi from Gorno-Altaisk for about US$100 (Dh360) a day. Take a Russian phrasebook or download a translation app. Tour companies such as  Altair-Tour ( 7 383 2125115 ) offer hiking and adventure packages.
The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The specs

Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel

Power: 579hp

Torque: 859Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

Price: From Dh825,900

On sale: Now

Squid Game season two

Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk 

Stars:  Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun

Rating: 4.5/5

Analysis

Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more

The specs: Rolls-Royce Cullinan

Price, base: Dh1 million (estimate)

Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic

Power: 563hp @ 5,000rpm

Torque: 850Nm @ 1,600rpm

Fuel economy, combined: 15L / 100km