The Nottingham Contemporary’s entrance sits on High Pavement in the conservation area of the Lace Market in Nottingham City Centre.
The Nottingham Contemporary is built on a cliff, with entrances to the building on three levels. The main entrance sits on High Pavement ground level, the level on which the galleries are situated on.
The public can enter and exit at two points in the building, High Pavement, east facing and through the café bar, south facing on the mezzanine level, which exits onto the lower yard. Also to the south in the basement level which is situated at the end of cliff road is the vehicle and works entrance. This entrance provides space for lorries to back into the building to unload and load.
The buildings main purpose is an exhibition space for contemporary art, which is displayed in galleries 1-4. In other areas of the building there are workshop spaces, offices and an events space which can provide, music, theatre and cinema.
The space within the galleries provides a good expanse of height and width to accommodate a variety of exhibitions.
Approximate dimensions
Existing buildings adjacent to the sight, north facing
There are a number of buildings surrounding the Nottingham Contemporary. The north face of the building has a large expanse of open space as it looks out onto Weekday cross. The buildings facing the Contemporary on weekday cross are mainly cafe’s and restaurants, which are at an angle to this face of the building and look out onto gallery 4’s window. The offices to the west sit across and slightly back from the wide expanse of Middle Hill road, although they overlook the west side of the Contemporary there are no windows on this side of the building.
Existing buildings adjacent to the sight, north east facing
To the north east of the main entrance, sitting along High Pavement, is a long row of converted historical buildings, which consist of mainly restaurants, cafe’s and bars. These buildings have a view onto the north window and entrance and upper yard window. These buildings have little influence over internal views but link the building to the lace market to which it’s structure is influenced.
Existing buildings adjacent to the sight east facing
To the east lies the imposing converted Unitarian Church, which is now a restaurant/bar. It has high level stained windows, which do not provide views onto the Contemporary and its entrance sits back from the road and from the boundary of the Nottingham Contemporary upper yard. The upper yard area and parts of Garnet Hill steps – with views into the contemporary’s large landing window – can however be viewed from the outside seating areas of the church.
Internal sightlines
The sunpath allows the Contemporary’s main entrance to have early sun to after midday. Before, during and after midday the best of the sun is focused on the lower yard, where the café seating spills out onto when the weather permits. The north and east facing buildings are not too close to block the sun from the buildings windows and the south facing windows on the café and project area have no buildings overlooking the Contemporary.
The main materials in The Nottingham Contemporary galleries are; wooden floors, plaster walls, glass and the materials from which the ceiling/window structure is made from – what material this is I am not entirely sure?
Wooden Floors
The wooden floors in the Nottingham Contemporary provide a very mellow element to the galleries. The tones in the wood are soft natural tones of yellow, orange and brown, with varying shades of grey in the grain and between the boards. The floors are used throughout the galleries which provides a flow through the building.
The wood appears flat and smooth but it is far from one dimensional. The shape of the boards themselves provide pattern and direction. Looking more closely the differing grain of every board provides a natural beauty and texture.
I am not certain what type of wood it is but would take a guess at oak and also that it is a solid wooden floor. Solid wooden floors provide the best sound absorption, this being another reason the floor appears mellow to me. As I sat at the entrance to the galleries I watched and listened as people entered, which acoustically was soft and gentle underfoot.
In areas where the floor has clearly had greater footfall the boards look greyer as the grains in the wood appear to merge together and become worn.
Plastered Walls
From a distance the plastered walls appear to be flat, matt white. Looking closely however their is a texture to the walls, there is a slightly bumpy texture, almost pock marked.
Although the walls are painted a matt white, again when taking more time to look they appear to emit different tones, sometime grey, blue or pink and provided an orange glow when light is reflected on them.
Glass
Although only one gallery has a window glass is used vastly throughout the building:
Gallery 4 and front of building – large glass window.
Entrance – large glass doors, internal and external and large window running across the reception area.
Galleries 1,2,3 – large glass doors.
Landing area between entrance level and lower ground level – large window
Café – large glass doors, window and window above in the project space, which is to the rear of the building.
Glass is not only used to bring in natural light and entice people into the gallery but it is constantly changing and manipulated with coloured shaped adhesive film to display messages and advertise.
Sometimes the film has colour added to prevent too much light entering a gallery and sometimes to allow the window to create it’s own work of art as light which streams through it provides a mirrored coloured reflection.
Unknown Material
The ceiling/light structures in the galleries are held on metal beams and partly made from what I imagine is Perspex, and not glass, but are constructed mainly from a material which I am not entirely sure what it is?
The diagonal shaped pieces have a slight shine to them, at times looking a little like laminate. The solidness of the pieces also have the quality of an Natural Acrylic Stone, like Corian and Hi-Macs products which I looked at in the previous exercise. Neither laminate or Corian I would however consider to be suitable or required for a construction like this.
Spending some time gazing up at the ceiling my final assumption is that the construction is made from pieces of plaster board, cut to shape and filled at the joins, painted with a soft sheen paint to appear like solid diagonal shaped forms.
Auguste Perret is a French architect with whom Le Corbusier pioneered the use of Beton Brut (Raw concrete) from which the term Brutalism comes from.
Brutalist architects valued the rawness of materials – promoting the “Truth to materials”
Beton Brut is a style which leaves cast concrete unfinished, displaying it’s imperfections, lines and seems which are imprinted during the formwork (casting process).
During construction, buildings built with Beton Brut have their structural methods exposed, exposing their frame and components which would usually be hidden from sight. Brutalist buildings were the forerunners to high-tech structural expressionism which display their steel skeleton on the outside.
Perret completed a number of buildings in this Brutalist style including the Church of Notre Dame near Paris and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.
Church of Notre Dame
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
An outstanding example of his work is St. Joseph’s Church, in the city of Le Havre, a city which Perret reconstructed after it was destroyed in the war and which is now a Unisco world heritage site.
St. Joseph’s Church, Le Havre
Below are highlighted examples of how Perret displays ‘Truth to materials’. The concrete is bare and un-perfected, with large concrete structural columns on display. Other components of the building are also uncovered expressing and honesty about the buildings construction materials.
Sebastian Cox
Designer Sebastian Cox uses coppiced wood to create furniture and house hold items, which often continue to resemble the tree from which they came.
From the image above we can clearly see the bark of the branches and the grain of the wood in the table top is clearly visible, not hidden with stain or paint.
Sebastian’s philosophy is that every piece of ‘wood is far too beautiful to throw away’ (Cox, 2019), thus he uses off cuts of wood to create small items, each displaying the natural grain and colour.
Cox is loyal to ‘Truth to Materials’ not disguising the material, it’s imperfections or how it is constructed.
Jurgen Mayer
Jürgen Mayer is a German architect responsible for the design and build of the Meteropol Parasol. One of the largest timber constructions in the world.
The Meteropol Parasol is an urban centre combining both commerce and leisure contrasting with the background of the medieval city of Seville in which it is constructed.
The Parasol is made from interlocking milled timber with a polyurethane coating which is held together with glue and steel connectors, all of which are on show. The materials used, which include a steel frame are clear to see, they are not faced with further materials to hide the connections between pieces of wood or where wood and steel come together.
I don’t believe that ‘Truth to Materials’ is Jurgen Mayers ethos in all projects but with the Metropol Parasol he lays his materials and components bare. It is clear that this structure is made from interlocking pieces of wood, not something which is generally used in a building and the joins and workings of a structure and not so often exposed.
Barbara Hepworth 1903 -1975
Barbra Hepworth was a sculptor who, with Henry Moore, ‘became leading practitioners of the avant-garde method of Direct Carving (working in the directly chosen material’ (Tate, 2019)
From the image below we can see her working directly with wood, the marks her tools make and the grain and texture of the wood.
Hepworth worked in a variety of materials, sculpting, welding and molding, creating sculptures which display the ethos of ‘truth to materials’.
Large and small form
Squares with two circles
Mother and Child
In each example of Hepworths work above we can clearly see the materials used to create her sculpture. Large and Small Form and Mother and Child are made from alabaster, displaying the minerals markings with their own imperfections. Although the pieces look like 2 separate pieces of stone there is no fixing methods to be seen as they are each carved out of one piece of alabaster.
Squares with two circles is cast in bronze, clearly shows the patina of the metal as well as the joins between the shapes. The squares themselves are not actually square, with the angles not being 90 degrees and a slight convex to the face. To me this would appear to demonstrate ‘truth to materials’, that she allowed the metal and forms to take shape without manipulating them into perfection.
Debbie Smith
In researching ‘Truth to Materials’ I have come across textile artist Debbie Smith. I believe Smith is using her medium with a ‘Truth to Materials’ attitude as she is using thread in it’s simplest form. She is not sewing or intertwining it with other fabrics so it becomes only a tool to hold fabrics together but putting it on display and not shying away from it’s imperfection of fraying.
Smiths constructing and fixing method is clearly visible. She plots her designs with pins which are then left in place to stretch and fix her thread between to create her ‘pin and thread drawings’. (Smith, 2011)
Referencing
Barbarahepworth.org.uk. (2019). Home | Barbara Hepworth. [online] At: http://barbarahepworth.org.uk/ (Accessed on 09.03.19)
Centre, U. (2019). Le Havre, the City Rebuilt by Auguste Perret. [online] Whc.unesco.org. Available at: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1181 (Accessed on 10.03.19)
Researching Norman Foster and the Reichstag has been an enjoyable task. I’ve hugely appreciated the learning from these exercises; to know and understand more about Norman Foster and his design ethics has been enlightening and intriguing. I have also felt quite humbled that I knew so little about such a prominent figure and his extensive portfolio of work. It has made me realise how little I know and how much I have to learn! I can say much the same about the Reichstag – prior to undertaking this work I knew little of its history and the design for it’s future.
Reflection on the task
I took some time to decide on the best design for the presentation and as I am currently limited to using PowerPoint I felt a little limited. I also struggled deciding how much text to add – I worry it’s too much but at the same time believe it gives a good overview of the history of the Reichstag? In the end I decided to use simple shapes formed in a cone, so that it relates to the dome. I also made the shapes transparent, as a link to the design brief using colours which link to the Reichstag and Foster.
Materials I have chosen to focus on for this exercise are Stone, Metal and Glass. Each were paramount in Wallot’s design as they are in Fosters but with glass used to a much greater extent and taking a higher ranking than in Wallot’s Reichstag.
Stone
Stone, in this case granite is the main ingred ient of this building. It is the bones of the building, it gives it its great bulk and presence. It’s density and fire resistant qualities, no doubt what gave the building its strength and stam ina to stand the conflict it was put through.
Stone is not a material which Foster is known for creating new buildings with, he has however worked on numerous projects where historic structures have been restored or added to. Example of these are; of course the Reichstag, Chateau Margaux, Apple Champs-Elysees and HM Treasury.
2. HM Treasury
When rebuilding the Reichstag Foster wanted to bring stone from France, which he believed to be of superior quality. Foster however received pressure to use German Stone.
3. Original and new stone
In order to sense the history in the structure Foster has stuck to the original stone material and retained as much of the original building as is possible.
Although not entirely throughout the building, Foster has been sympathetic in his rebuild, maintaining as much of the original structure as possible and where ‘junctions between old and new work are expressed and where the existing fabric has been repaired the junction is clearly articulated’ (Foster, 2000: 77) This is done by leaving a small space (shadow gap) between the old and new as can be seen in the images.
4. Distinction between old and new
It is easy to spot new stone within the building, it is smooth and undisturbed in great contrast with the original which has been marked by it’s historic past.
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Glass
Glass has become the most Important of materials within the Reichstag. The most prominent glass structure being the cupola.
The glass and the cupola honor Wallot’s glass dome, but unlike Wallot’s dome, which was heavy and empty and could not be viewed from inside the building, Fosters glass dome is light in appearance and valuable in so many ways.
Glass is transparent and clear, exactly the message the German government wanted to give to their people, the reason Foster has used glass not just in the cupola but to a huge extent throughout the refurbishment. It provides views in and out and does not allow for secrets, much in contrast to Wallot’s compartmentalised darkly decorated interior.
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Glass also permitted Foster to work to the sustainable and ecological brief, bringing a vast amount of light and heat into the building. Cells within the Cupola use light to produce electricity and the mirrors within the cupola produce heat, reducing the need for fossil fuels.
Glass is ubiquitous in Fosters projects, it allows him to provide the sustainable and ecological benefits that he believes every building should offer. It is not always the prominent material like we see with the Hearst Tower or Seagram building but it always has an important role to play. We have seen the use of glass on all the projects I touched on through my research but other good examples include the Apple Cotai Central project in Macau where layers of glass and stone are integrated to give the appearance of a translucent stone façade, which provides a still and tranquil atmosphere internally.
12. Apple Cotai Central, Macau
Mirrors
The light reflector within the cupola is made using mirrors which come together to create a huge lens which reflects light down into the chamber. It has been hugely effective due to there being no tall buildings surrounding the Reichstag so allows a full unobstructed sky to bring in light. By interacting within a number of other elements within the cupola the mirrors provide heat. The mirrors and the system in which they are part of allows sunlight to enter into the chamber or for the outside changes in nature to be sensed from the inside.
13. Mirrored cone
Earlier examples of mirrors in Fosters work can be seen in the Fred Olsen project set in a forest in Norway, mirrors were used to project skylight into the interior of the building. In the 1985 Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters, with the creating of the sun scoop which brought light into the atrium and public plaza. In his 2018 Apple’s Champs-Élysées project Foster created a pyramid shaped solar roof, which reflects light on and into the building while also reflecting images of surrounding buildings.
14. Apple Champs-Élysées
Steel
Steel is a favoured material of Fosters, with the majority of buildings which I have looked at through this research being constructed of steel. It is what gives Fosters the ability to build sky scrappers such as the HSBC building and to create a structure to which glass can hang from effortlessly and almost unobstructed, such as the Supreme Court in Singapore.
14. Supreme Court Singapore
Wallots original dome structure was made from steel as is Fosters, but Fosters use of steel feels far more valuable, on show and useful giving the structure a much lighter more buoyant feel.
The structure of the dome was made from steel, constructed by German structural engineers. The structure weighs more than 800 tons but is created to look delicate with 24 curved ribs running from the top to the bottom of the dome to which the ramps are hung. Attached to the ribs are horizontal ringed beams, attached to the ribs by steel connectors and welded joints. The cone is then attached to the chamber ceiling using stainless steel cables. The Cupola is then attached to the building by piercing the ceiling of the chamber from where the chamber can be viewed.
The steel connects with the glass and mirrors, allowing the glass dome to sit gracefully on top. The steel then connects with the building as it is held in place and sits majestically, bringing all of these materials together in a considered and symbolic way.
Steel is used in other internal areas throughout the building such as window frames, handrails & staircases.
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The image below displays how the contemporary, airy and luminous glass and steel structure contrasts while integrating with the heavy, robust and resilient stone of the past.
Civil Engineering Blog. (2016). Common Buidling Stones – Characterisitics of Building Stones. [online] At: http://www.civileblog.com/building-stones/ (Accessed o 05.03.19)
Foster, N. (2000). Rebuilding the Reichstag. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press.
In 1871 a competition was held to design a building to house the German Parliament, after Germany’s mini states unified and became the United States of Imperial Germany. The creation of the Reichstag was however fraught with problems and was not completed until 1894.
The architect who won the competition, Ludwig Bonhnstedt, was found to be half Russian which was distasteful for the German people. Another issue was that the site which had been chosen to build the Reichstag, close to the Brandenburg Gate in the Spreebogan, bulge of the River Spree, on the Raczynski Palace grounds had not been given prior agreement by the owner, Count Raczynski. The Count, displeased he had not been consulted would not agree to the purchase of the site until after his death, which happened in 1872. The transfer was not straight forward however, it took time for the counts son to agree the purchase, eventually doing so in 1881. By this time Bonhnstedt’s design had fallen out of favour and another competition ensued. This time the competition was narrowed to German speaking architects only. In 1882 the prize was announced to two 1st prize winners Paul Wallot and Friedrich Theirsch but Theirschs’ design was not developed and the task lay with Paul Wallot.
Location of the Reichstag, Berlin, Germany Figure 1. Storming of the Reichstag 1945 Figure 2. Modern day Berlin
Figure 1
Figure 2
Wallot’s design came under criticism for its mix of architectural styles, which, as part of my research I myself have found myself to be true. Some sources say it is Neo-Baroque another Neo-classical another High Renaissance and classical with another stating ‘loosely Italianate in style but, jumbled together elements from a wide variety of sources including Gothic, Romanesque Baroque and Germanic’ (Foster, 2000: 40). It is indeed highly decorated with inscriptions, sculptures and reliefs. The façade comprised of columned porticos with wide steps which lead to a protruding triangular shaped gable. There are four wings to the building two inner court yards and in the centre an assembly chamber.
Wallot’s highly decorative exterior
Wallot’s design was changed numerous times by Kaiser Wilhelm, the most contentious feature being the dome. Wallot had designed this to be above the assembly chamber to the rear of the building and to be of a stone structure. The Kaiser objected suggesting the dome should be towards the front. Not until after the Kaiser died and Kaiser Wilhelm II was in power was it agreed that the dome could be placed at the rear but at the Building Commissioners recommendation was made smaller and from glass.
Figure 3
Wallot had wanted Deutshcen Volke – To the German People – to be inscribed on the building but the Kaiser objected, later however, as a gesture of German unity it was inscribed in 1916 during World War I. ‘The bronze letters themselves constituted a gesture within a gesture, cast as they were from Napoleonic cannon captured at the Battle of Leipzig a century earlier’ (Foster, 2000: 40).
Figure 4.
Wallot’s interior consisted of the chamber, a library, a writing room, a committee room, sweeping staircases and other principal rooms. Interior decoration was intensely Germanic – highly decorative with carvings, paintings, tapestries, stain glass and sculptures.
Figure 5
Figure 6
The Reichstag’s political history
The years that pursued saw political fractions and turmoil in Germany and within the Reichstag. In 1932 the Reichstag was taken control of by the Nazis and in 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor, but without a working majority. On the left the two largest parties after the Nazis were the Socialist Democratic Party and The Communist Party. New elections were to be called on the 5th of March but on the 27th of February fire broke out rendering the Reichstag unusable. Hitler blamed the Communists for which a number were charged with arson and executed.
Prior to the fire, consideration had been given to the extension of the Reichstag and it’s surrounds to ensure it’s future suitability for parliamentary activities. In 1927 and again in 1929 competitions were held to redesign parts of the Reichstag and its surrounding areas but none came to fruition. After the fire the Nazi’s made some repairs to use it as an exhibition space and then as a war broke out again as a maternity hospital and space for military provisions.
After Berlin was badly struck by air raids in 1940 the Reichstag was used like a fortress with windows bricked up to avoid further damage to the interior and anti aircraft guns sat on top of it’s towers. But in 1945 The Red Army advanced firing on the Reichstag leaving it almost unrecognisable.
The Russian capture of the Reichstag was hugely symbolic. The Reichstag was the reason there was no Red revolution in Germany, it was also the cause of the death of Communists blamed for the fire and home of the Nazi’s who had invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. This the reason why Russian officers took great efforts to vandalise and scribe graffiti across it’s walls and columns to protest and tell Hitler what they thought of him.
Figure 7
The Reichstag’s modern history and developments
The Reichstag lay in ruins until 1954 when the remainder of the dome was demolished but in 1957 a start was made to the renovate the exterior. More turmoil was on it’s way however when the East German Government began the construction of a wall to prevent the loss of East Germans into the West through Berlin, The Reichstag was symbolic in the split as it sat on the very edge of the western side of the wall.
Figure 8
The Reichstag underwent further restoration under architect Paul Baumgarten and in 1961 opened to be used as a conference venue and museum of modern German history, without a dome and with much of it’s past stripped away. Little thought or care had been given to the historical significance of the building in Baumgarten’s designs. Foster himself comments that ‘Paul Baumgarten’s reconstruction was at odds with the original form of the building.’ (Foster, 2000: 76) Other than Fosters comments I have been unable to find much about what was thought about Baumgarten’s refurbishment of the Reichstag. The fact that there is little information and that some Reichstag research sources appear to gloss over this part of the Reichstag’s history, would suggest there is little to say about Baumgarten’s work on the Reichstag.
Things took a different course for the Reichstag after the fall of the Berlin wall and the reunification of Germany. In 1991 it was agreed that Berlin should once again be home to the German parliament and later agreed that the Bundestag be housed in the Reichstag. Foster was appointed in 1993 but prior to Fosters restoration of the Reichstag an art project, which originated in 1971, came to fruition when artists Christo and Jean Claude wrapped the Reichstag in more than a million square feet of fabric rendering the large wounded bulk of a building ‘light, almost delicate. It takes on an ethereal beauty, and looks as if it could float away into the silvery, cloudy Berlin sky.’ (Goldberg, 1995)
Figure 9
Restoring the Reichstag: historical, political and cultural design decisions
In contrast with Baumgarten’s reconstruction Foster appears to have taken all of the Reichstag’s historical past into consideration. The new Reichstag was to be a symbol for not forgetting the past but for moving on, a symbol of Germany’s future, togetherness, openness and without boundaries. To communicate this the brief had a robust ecological agenda; the use of daylight, transparency and to provide public access to create a truly democratic building. Foster also focused on the Bundestag itself understanding the way it worked and what it’s needs were, so much so Foster proposed that the building could provide space for other political parties, rather than house them else where, as was the intention. He also proposed space for the press. His understanding of the buildings history, it’s future and his knowledge of German parliament won him the competition.
Much of what Wallot had designed and built had been destroyed but Foster admired Wallot’s ‘well-planned and logical building’ compared to Baumgarten’s which ‘was at odds with the original form of the building’. (Foster, 2000: 76) But when peeling away the surfaces Foster uncovered some of Wallot’s Reichstag as well as the graffiti left by the Soviet Soldiers. Foster was determined that these elements should stay as a true living history. When this was agreed Foster felt Germany had proven it was now a truly democratic culture.
Foster respected the old building during the restoration, retaining Wallot’s original floor levels, qualities of his planning grid and restoring some architectural features. Where old meets new the cross over is clearly denoted.
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Foster also had to take the building into the future, which he did so by eliminating as many ‘secret’ spaces as possible and opening the compartmentalised building Wallot had created. The most significant change to the building was cutting through the building from top to bottom, mainly over the chamber to expose the building to light and views and to erect the cupola. A Cupola which is open to the public with it’s surrounding public roof terrace. The building is split into separate areas for The President, MPs, administration, press and public, some areas of course cross over. It was important that the building did not portray a them-and-us attitude, Foster’s design ensures this is not the case. Everyone comes through the same front door, first alighting the grand steps leading to a 30-meter high foyer. The chamber was designed to feel intimate so that when only a small group of MPs are attending it does not provide a sense of dominance. Chamber seating and public tribunes are closely arranged so the public can attend to listen to debates and not feel disconnected from the proceedings while Mezzanine connecting bridges allow views to look down into the east foyer which at times is used for formal events. On entering the building the public can see directly through a glass partition where the Bundestag sits including the president, the chancellor and other political leaders. Public, politicians and press can mix and relax on the roof terrace and restaurant.
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Areas within the Reichstag
The cupola, which was developed over time, was designed not only to bring daylight into and through the building but to ventilate it too. For Foster the cupola was ‘a marker on the Berlin skyline, communicating themes of lightness, transparency, permeability and public access that underscore the project’. (Foster, 2000: 87). It also provides views over Berlin allowing you to see the significance of the modern day Reichstag’s positioning, with the Tiergarten and new Chancellery Buildings to the west, the historical quarter to the east, Potsamer Platz’s new commercial towers to the south and in front, the Brandenburg gate.
The ecological brief was further upheld – the building does not burn fossil fuels but vegetable oil which through a process of cogeneration produces electricity. Excess heat is stored below the ground and through a variety of process can be used to heat the building or produce cold water. 94% less emissions of carbon dioxide are produced, in a building which works as a small power station producing more energy than it uses.
Conclusion
Understanding the history of the Reichstag has been fascinating, the historical significance of the building is huge. From its beginnings it was adorned with stained glass, art work and statues to depict the unity Germany had come to know at that time. It’s 4 towers signifying the four kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Wurttemberg and statues created to epitomise defence against evil, such as dragon slaying and eagles wining the fight with snakes. There too were symbols of trade, agriculture and art, prosperous under the German empire. But the scars of fire and war are as much depictions of history as the statues and art work. The fact that the building, although wounded, battled on and stood the test of time is hugely symbolic for what Germany and it’s people have been through. With what I have come to know about the building and its past I believe it was truly the right thing for Parliament to return to the Reichstag and not just create a monument or museum but to continue its story and to give it new life. To keep the graffiti and memories of its troubled passed is an honorable thing to do and to invite in the public and let them see the past as well as the future in this magnificent building seems truly progressive. Foster I feel has managed to make a hugely sustainable building, to renew and reinvigorate it in exactly the way the German people wanted while creating a fantastic piece of architecture that people from all over the world can take the opportunity to enjoy and learn from.
Bibliography
Images
Figure 1. Storming the Reichstag [Map]http://www.armchairgeneral.com/rkkaww2/maps/1945W/1BF/Berlin/756RR_assault_45.jpg. (Accessed on 01.03.19)
I was extremely pleased that my tutor found my work ‘exploratory, loose (I think) and questioning. This positive opening feedback was very welcome having undertaking, what was for me, out of the ordinary exercises and studying at a level which is a new and uncertain thing for me.
At the same time the tutor informed me of the things I ought to be doing at this level; such as colour coding, annotating images, using human profile figures to provide scale in models, all of which I can now see would benefit and enhance my work.
My tutor provided me with some research around a question I raised – ‘why did so many take to the right’. A question I asked myself about the direction people took through a gallery. I left this question open without trying to find an answer – something which I have been informed I should do. I read the research and again realised how much my learning can be improved by undertaking such a task. It allowed me to explore the question further and provided reason’s, in this case why people behave in a certain way and which provided me with a possible answer to the behaviour I witnessed.
For exercise 1:5 I was to visualise the space and experience through one sketch. I chose to complete this in monochrome, which my tutor felt was a poor choice, loosing some of the richness and visual contrast which had been provided in other examples. I think I may have felt this was the right thing to do because the examples shown in the course work are in monochrome. I probably thought monochrome would be a little more sophisticated and I was possibly a little concerned that adding colour would have created something a little too childlike. The feedback allowed me to see that I should not think in these ways, to push myself, not to worry and to experiment.
Although some feedback around my assessment piece was positive I am disappointed in myself that I did not continue with the first attempt at this piece or at least continue with a dual aspect piece which I originally intended. The tutor was dissatisfied that I did not continue with adding angles in this piece, angles which I had referred to throughout the exercises. My first attempt for this assessment piece was a tall diagonal wall like structure with a dangling ball of ‘fuzz’ to represent an audio hum. The ball had shapes and different materials sticking out from the fuzz to represent the different sounds which interjected through the hum. I however could not get the wall to stand tall enough at an angle to also hold the ball. Further to this I was unsure if the ball of sound was convincing enough, thus I ended up with the box of sound waves and representation of irregular noises. Having now had the feedback about this piece I feel I copped out and should have stuck to including angles as I had intended, in some form or other. I have no doubt this feedback will make me more persistent in future activities – to continue to portray the visual elements which affected me the most.
My tutor commented that I could be more balanced with observations concerning physical elements, materials and spatial layout in terms of function and how these contribute to the feelings you experience. Begin to draw in the views of others from research to develop your thinking. The last comment again is about looking for research and information around the subject, which I aim to do. I however felt I had observed the elements he mentioned so will ask my tutor to expand on this for me, so I can understand where my observations have lacked and what text he can recommend for me to research further.
The tutor commented that a gallery is perhaps not the richest of interior spaces architecturally, given that its design is as a bare canvas for other work. I fully appreciate this and initially did not think I would choose the gallery to complete this exercise but once I was there I was taken in by it’s height, space and those angles! Having a glimpse at further exercises I can see that this space may not provide me with such a productive subject?
Overall I was pleased with the feedback I received which was both positive and instructive. I am glad of the instruction and guidance received to help direct and push me on.
Work after feedback from my tutor
As mentioned above I felt frustrated with myself that I did not produce a model with angles, reflecting how I felt about the power of the angles in the Nottingham Contemporary. Therefore I decided to create another piece and, as suggested, add a human profile for scale.
This piece has many angles. I have tried with this piece to portray the varying shapes of the galleries in the Nottingham Contemporary and the angled walls ability to pull you in. Although there were no steps in the gallery I added these symbolically to represent the changing heights in the gallery but also that you are being lead/pulled into spaces, the way steps lead you to another level. I also aimed to illustrate the changing quality of light in the galleries by have some parts of the model open, others covered and gaps where it is possible to see in and out, as I was able to see in and out of the gallery window or through some of the gallery doors.
The folded paper represents the hum which could be heard in gallery 1 – and the greater tension I felt when I spent time in this gallery.
For this precedent research exercise I have chosen to look at the Reichstag Building in Berlin, Germany and it’s designer Sir Norman Foster.
Norman Foster
Born in Manchester, UK in 1935
Trained at The University of Manchester from 1956-61 and then Yale University in the US from 1961-62.
In 1967 he established his own architectural company which later became known as Foster + Partners.
Foster was knighted in 1990 and granted a life peerage in 1999.
Awards: Pritzker Prize – 1999 The Japan Art Associations Praemium Imperiale prize for architecture – 2002 Aga Khan award – 2007
Foster’s early life and influences
Foster had an unconventional route to becoming an architect. Firstly he came from a working class background, at a time when it was not typical for a young person of his social class to go to University. From an early age however Foster had interests which clearly directed and influenced his path in architecture. As a teenager he was an avid reader of The Eagle magazine with, Dan Dare -Pilot of the Future, which often depicted a space age world, ‘of atomic powered monorails and levitating taxis.’ (Sudjic, 2010: 3) Such taxi’s look similar to the Rapid Transport System Foster designed for Masdar City. The Eagle magazine also provided intricate engineering illustrations such as the Dome of Discovery and Coventry Cathedral, which was described as ‘The Cathedral of the Space Age’ (Sudjic, 2010: 10). Studying the Eagles many intricate illustrations would appear to be a clear influence on Fosters state-of-the-art designs.
3 – Eagle Magazine with Dan Dare Pilot of the future
4 – Masdar Rapid Transport System
There was an early more direct link to architecture when Foster, who spent many hours in his local library in Levenshulme, discovered LeCorbusier’s Vers une architecture and Henry-Russell Hitchocks tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright – In the Nature of Materials.
While at home Foster played with Meccano and Trix construction kits, developing structures beyond the creators expectations.
Leaving school at 16 Foster took a job at Manchester Town Hall. Here he would take different routes through the building to study the 13th Century Gothic buildings narrative. During breaks from work he would take walks to look at what architecture Manchester had to offer, on one such walk he discovered the Daily Express Building in Ancotes, designed by William Owens. The black sleek curved building clearly influenced Fosters design for the Willis Faber Dumas Insurance Company’s office in Ipswich.
Other architectural influences for Foster were Mies van der Rohe, a previous director of the Bauhaus who pioneered the use of steel and glass, as can be seen with his 1958 Seagram Building. Steel and glass became a staple of Fosters buildings.
8 – Seagram Building
Foster built a personal and professional relationship with inventor Buckminster Fuller. Fuller did not formally train in architecture and design but worked in this area and was known as a ‘design scientist’ (Bfi.org, 2019). It was Fuller’s ideology in solving social issues including problems with housing, transport and poverty and the influence Fuller had on scientists, architects and designers to work in a sustainable way that Foster admired so much. We see this ideology throughout Fosters work.
Norman Foster designs
Foster + Partners have become a prolific architectural firm, designing and building state of the art structures across the world, including; commercial buildings, airports, exhibition spaces and bridges. Below is an example of just a few of Norman Foster’s creations.
Sainsbury’s Centre for Visual Arts (Norwich, England 1976)
Built on the campus of the University of East Anglia the Sainsburys Centre for the Visual Arts is a vast space created by a prefabricated structure of steel, glass and aluminium panels.
The centre was created to ensure great consideration was given to the objects it displays, which in part is through its clever use of light, through natural and artificial sources.
Light, which streams through full height windows at each end of the building, can be controlled with louvers in the buildings interior. The windows provide a connection to its surrounding landscape with views at either end.
10 – Sainsbury’s Centre for the Visual Arts
11 – Sainsburys Centre for the Visual Arts
Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Head Quarters (Hong Kong, China 1986)
For the HSBC building, Foster was to create ‘the best bank in the world’. (www.fosterandpartners.com, 2019)
Like the Sainsburys Centre for Visual Arts, services within the building are pushed to the edges of the building providing adequate floor space for a building which was required to be over a million square feet.
The building consists of 3 towers at 29, 36 and 44 stories high, creating varying heights and floors with different dimensions.
The building also offers garden terraces and a 10 story atrium. Through the atrium sunlight is reflected, with the creation of a mirrored ‘sunscoop’, down to a plaza below which has become a popular sheltered spot for the public to picnic.
In a high-tech assured manner, the building reflects the nature of banking in Hong Kong at that time of its creation.
When completed the Commerzbank was the tallest building in Europe, at 53 stories high and the first ecological office tower in the world.
New concepts of lighting and ventilation were developed by installing windows which could be opened, giving more control to those that occupied the building, reducing by half the energy consumption of traditional office towers.
The building is comprised of winter gardens, an atrium and office clusters like villages, providing spaces to meet and relax.
The central atrium provides natural ventilation by transporting light and air around the offices.
The existing buildings surrounding the tower were thoughtfully restored to fit with the original surroundings. Further, they provide amenities to the local community including, shops, cafe’s, parking and a galleria.
16 – Commerzbank
17 – Commerzbank
Masdar City (Abu Dhabi, UAE 2014)
Masdar is a state of the art city, a vision of the Abu Dhabi government to ensure a sustainable city which can live in a world when oil is no longer a regular commodity.
Masdar aims to provide zero waste and be carbon neutral. It is home to the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Its rapid transport system is free of fossil flues and areas around the city will comprise of wind and photovoltaic farms with research fields and plantations meaning the city will become self sufficient for energy. It is a city which ‘offers a blueprint for the sustainable city of the future.’ (www.fosterandpartners.com, 2019)
19 – Masdar City
20 – Masdar City
Design Philosophy
As can be seen from the examples above Norman Foster is and has always been about High Tech design and sustainability, even before sustainability was fashionable or the expected norm within new architecture. Foster + Partners have a dedicated Sustainability Group to ensure continual improvements and progression in sustainable design and an Environmental Engineering Team to design ecological systems and advance user experiences.
Foster believes it’s a combination of elements that creates the best architecture; involving it’s construction materials, light, amenities, how a design relates to buildings and the landscape around it and how it makes individuals feel.
Patterns can be seen in Fosters work with his frequent use of steel and glass and the triangular shaped panes of glass which can be seen in the Swiss Re building, the Hearst Tower and the British Museum.
21 – Swiss Re Building
22 – Hearst Tower
23. British Museum
But what is most noticeable about Fosters work is his values. ‘Foster describes architecture as the expression of values’ (Study.com, 2019) and it is clear to see Foster’s designs are technological, adaptable and ecological. The Sainsburys Centre for Visual Arts was built in a way that it could be extended, as it later was. The HSBC building provides gardens and a ‘sunscoop’ which directs sunlight onto a public plaza below. The Commerzbank is ventilated naturally for 85% of the year and Masdar City aims to be carbon neutral. Some other examples expressing these values are:
Chateau Margaux – where Premier Cru wine is produced. Foster + Partners were instructed to design a new building, the first since the estate was originally built in the early 1900s. Foster + Partners designed new state of the art buildings as well as refurbishing old ones to allow for better more flexible use of space and to further the premium wine making process in a modern world. This state of the art design was however done in a way that the new buildings fit with the existing architecture and landscape.
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Daylight streams through openings designed in Tocumen International Airport’s roof to reach every corner of the building and the overhang prevents the glass exterior from solar gain, which reduces the requirement for powered ventilation.
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The SEC Armadillo is a symbolic symbol for Glasgow, representing the city’s history of ship building with a sequence of metal clad hulls. Inside it has state-of-the-art technology allowing for a flexible space which can deliver concerts, conferences and commercial functions.
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Further to the traits looked at above Foster believes in the importance of creating public spaces, even within commercial designs as was seen with the public plaza below the HSBC, Hong Kong Headquarters and the public amenities around the Commerzbank. Foster has stated; ‘Public spaces are more important than buildings. They make a city alive.’ (Study.com, 2019) This has been a clear characteristic of Fosters designs from as early as the 70s when he designed the Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters in Ipswich; which consisted of a pool, a roof cafeteria and roof lawn in order to create a community space. Public Space is a significant element in the transformation of the Reichstag; ‘where else in the world could everyone – citizens and visitors – walk through the main ceremonial entrance of their national Parliament building together with the politicians, rise to a public plaza on the roof, continue by ramps to a viewing platform, look down into the main chamber of Parliament below, or meet for a coffee or a meal.’ (Foster, 2000: 12)
The Reichstag Building
The Reichstag is a hugely symbolic building. It had once been the seat of the German parliament and in 1999 it was to be yet again. After the fall of the Berlin wall, of which the Reichstag sat close to, the reunification of Germany and the decision for Berlin to once again become the German capital it was agreed that the Reichstag be refurbished and once again be home to the German Parliament.
As had been inscribed on the building Dem Deutschen Volke – ‘To The German People’ Foster had to understand the buildings history and it’s future and the future of the German people.
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Rita Sussmuth, former president of the German Bundestag stated that ‘the building should transmit ‘a spirit of openness, freedom from national boundaries, and above all the pursuit of peaceful coexistence and cooperation between nations’. (Foster, 2000: 8)This was the concept for which Foster had to refurbish the building. He was to design and refurbish the building so that the German people felt they once again belonged to a unified country, to eliminate restriction by allowing the public into the building and for there to be transparency within the building, allowing the public to feel that it was theirs and rightfully democratic.
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It was for these reasons that Foster designed the glass cupola which replaces the buildings original dome. The cupola brings light into the building. This too has assisted in Fosters requirements for energy efficient buildings by using mirrors to reflect natural daylight into the building and creating a ventilation system which hugely reduces the need for fossil fuels.
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I feel very ashamed to admit that before researching Norman Foster and the Reichstag building I knew of Norman Foster but knew little about him and his vast portfolio of work. Considering my appreciation of buildings and the number of his buildings that I have not necessary been in but have witnessed from the outside, it seems absurd that I had such little knowledge. The majority of my research was factual information about his buildings taken from Foster + Partners website or other educational and architectural websites. These provided accurate information about the purpose of projects, the building materials used and their designs etc. His architectural ethos and ethics were also explained in these sources as they were explained in his biography A life in architecture by Deyan Sudjic. I read this biography to get a much greater understanding of Foster, understand his history, his influences and why has architecture has the character it has. There is no doubt that Sudjic has a great affection for Foster, they have worked together and clearly have a relationship of some sort, as Sudjic states ‘Over the years there have been dinners, and rides in his cars. He flew me to Manchester once’. (Sudjic, 2010: 294). Sudjac does touch on the projects which have gone wrong such as the millennium bridge and mentions Fosters occasional outbursts of rage but in the main the book is very biased towards the greatness of Norman Foster and his buildings, which is something which I have come away with from this research too. I greatly admire Fosters passion and determination from an early age, particularly as he began life in adverse circumstances. His foresight and progressive attitude towards ecological architecture and use of space in and around his buildings is hugely commendable. Foster appeared to always put people are at the forefront of our need for architecture. I do not know enough about other architects to compare Foster too and do not know enough about what has gone wrong or has not worked to have an unbiased opinion but from the facts I have learned I currently feel I would find it hard to change my admiration for Norman Foster. With regards to the Reichstag building itself, I have been outside but unfortunately did not have the opportunity to go in, something I hope to rectify in the not too distant future. Foster appears to have given the German people what they wanted by carefully restoring the old and not shying away from history while adding the new dome, bringing in light and transparency to this new future for Germany. Having stood outside the Reichstag however I do not think these political, moral and architectural aspects can be fully appreciated and it will take to being inside the building and cupola to fully understand what it means.
Lee's study journey 
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