Immediate Site

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Referencing

Ajbuildingslibrary.co.uk. (2009). Nottingham Contemporary | AJ Buildings Library. [online] At: https://www.ajbuildingslibrary.co.uk/projects/display/id/220 (Accessed on 22.02.19)

Nottinghamcontemporary.org. (2019). Home. [online] At: https://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/ (Accessed on 16.03.19)

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Cox is loyal to ‘Truth to Materials’ not disguising the material, it’s imperfections or how it is constructed.

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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.

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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.

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’.

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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.

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.

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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)

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Referencing

Barbarahepworth.org.uk. (2019). Home | Barbara Hepworth. [online] At: http://barbarahepworth.org.uk/ (Accessed on 09.03.19)

Debbie-smyth.com. (2019). About « Debbie Smyth. [online] At: https://debbie-smyth.com/about/ (Accessed on 14.03.2019)

En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Béton brut. [online] At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9ton_brut (Accessed on 11.03.19)

Encyclopedia.com. (2019). Auguste Perret | Encyclopedia.com. [online] At: https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/architecture-biographies/auguste-perret (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)

Jmayerh.de. (2019). J. MAYER H.     BUILDINGS     METROPOL PARASOL. [online] At: http://www.jmayerh.de/19-0-Metropol-Parasol.html (Accessed on 13.03.19)

Sebastian Cox. (2019). Sebastian Cox. [online] At: http://www.sebastiancox.co.uk/ (Accessed on 13.03.19)

Images

Auguste Perret. (2020). [image] At at: https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=0S4KleZc&id=1CA64D5FF6798A338E6E6A9FC9C9E00163086602&thid=OIP.0S4KleZcDxgu76uDv0FlwwHaJE&mediaurl=http%3a%2f%2farchi59.e-monsite.com%2fmedias%2fimages%2f39394460.jpg&exph=800&expw=653&q=auguste+perret&simid=608015124859522780&selectedIndex=0&ajaxhist=0 (Accessed on 08.03.19)

Le Havre, the City Rebuilt by Auguste Perret. (2020). [image] At: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1181/gallery/ (Accessed on 10.03.19)

Metropol Parasol. (2019). [image] Available at: http://www.jmayerh.de/19-0-Metropol-Parasol.html (Accessed on 13.03.19)

Metropol Parasol. (2020). [image] At: https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g187443-d1015407-Reviews-Setas_de_Sevilla_Metropol_Parasol-Seville_Province_of_Seville_Andalucia.html#photos;aggregationId=101&albumid=101&filter=7&ff=446657461 (Accessed on 13.03.19)

Sebastian Cox (2020). [image] At: http://www.sebastiancox.co.uk/workshop (Accessed on 12.03.19)

Barbara Hepworth. (2015). [image] At: https://www.christies.com/features/Reclaiming-Barbara-Hepworth-6200-1.aspx (Accessed on 11.03.19)

Barbara Hepworth. (2019). [image] At: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/dame-barbara-hepworth-1274/who-is-barbara-hepworth (Accessed on 09.03.19)

Large and Small Form. (2019). [image] At: http://barbarahepworth.org.uk/sculptures/1934/large-and-small-form-1/ (Accessed on 10.03.19)

Squares with two circles. (2020). [image] At: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/barbara-hepworth-squares-with-two-circles (Accessed on 09.03.19)

Mother and Child. (2019). [image] At: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/dame-barbara-hepworth-1274 (Accessed on 09.03.19)

Debbie Smith. (2019). [image] At: https://debbie-smyth.com/gallery/ (Accessed on 14.03.19)

Evaluation of the research

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Glass

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bibliography

Images

Figure 1 [image] http://www.stone-export.com/German/images/granite/G682-2.jpg. (Accessed on 05.03.19)

Figure 2 [photograph] https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/hm-treasury/ (Accessed on 08.03.19)

Figure 3 [photograph]
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-58HR-uqjhEM/Tj2JNsDhFTI/AAAAAAAAAIM/bLa-hVCiF38/s1600/IMG_5484.JPG. (Accessed on 08.03.19)

Figure 4 (2000). [photograph] In Foster, N. Rebuilding the Reichstag. Plate No: 81. Woodstock, N.Y: Overlook Press.

Figure 5. [photograph]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Reichstag_soviet_graffiti_2.jpg. (Accessed on 05.03.19)

Figure 6. [photograph] https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/reichstag-new-german-parlament/#gallery (Accessed on 05.03.19)

Figure 7 (2000). [photograph] In Foster, N. Rebuilding the Reichstag. Plate No: 134. Woodstock, N.Y: Overlook Press.

Figure 8 (2000). [photograph] In Foster, N. Rebuilding the Reichstag. Plate No: 137. Woodstock, N.Y: Overlook Press.

Figure 9 (2000). [photograph] In Foster, N. Rebuilding the Reichstag. Plate No: 117. Woodstock, N.Y: Overlook Press.

Figure 10 (2000). [photograph] In Foster, N. Rebuilding the Reichstag. Plate No: 125. Woodstock, N.Y: Overlook Press.

Figure 11 (2000). [photograph] In Foster, N. Rebuilding the Reichstag. Plate No: 114. Woodstock, N.Y: Overlook Press.

Figure 12 (dome mirrors) [photograph]https://i.pinimg.com/736x/f3/01/8f/f3018f19d65f5ee9b041bdc67673e8da.jpg. (Accessed on 08.03.19)

Figure 13 [photograph]https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/apple-champs-elysees/. (Accessed on 08.03.19)

Figure 14 [photograph]https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/supreme-court-of-singapore/ (Accessed in 08.03.19)

Figure 15 (2000). [photograph] In Foster, N. Rebuilding the Reichstag. Plate No: 66. Woodstock, N.Y: Overlook Press.

Figure 16 (2000). [photograph] In Foster, N. Rebuilding the Reichstag. Plate No: 86. Woodstock, N.Y: Overlook Press.

Figure 17 (2000). [photograph] In Foster, N. Rebuilding the Reichstag. Plate No: 77. Woodstock, N.Y: Overlook Press.

Figure 18 (2000). [photograph] In Foster, N. Rebuilding the Reichstag. Plate No: 76. Woodstock, N.Y: Overlook Press.

Figure 19 http://www.fosterandpartners.com, F. (2019). Reichstag, New German Parliament | Foster + Partners. [online] Fosterandpartners.com. Available at: https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/reichstag-new-german-parliament/#gallery [Accessed on 26.02.19)

Sources

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.

For this precedent research exercise I have chosen to look at the Reichstag Building in Berlin, Germany and it’s designer Sir Norman Foster.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bibliography

Images

Figure 1.Cdn.britannica.com. (2014). [online] At: https://cdn.britannica.com/45/101845-004-AB9DCB0D.jpg [Accessed 12 Feb. 2019]

Figure 2. Biography. (2014). Norman Foster. [online] At: https://www.biography.com/people/norman-foster-38151 [Accessed 12 Feb. 2019]

Figure 3. http://www.thatweb.co, T. (2018). The Eagle Comic | The Official Home of Dan Dare. [online] Dandare.com. At: http://www.dandare.com/eagle-comic.htm [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019

Figure 4. ITP.net. (2016). Masdar’s Personal Rapid Transit system reaches 99% efficiency – ITP.net. [online] At: http://www.itp.net/610528-masdars-personal-rapid-transit-system-reaches-99-efficiency [Accessed 12 Feb. 2019]

Figure 5. At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toward_an_Architecture [Accessed 12 Feb. 2019]

Figure 6. British Listed Buildings (2012). Daily Express Building, Ancoats and Clayton, Manchester. [online] Britishlistedbuildings.co.uk. At: https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/101218285-daily-express-building-ancoats-and-clayton-ward/photos/63552#.XGMBZtLLfIU [Accessed 15 Feb. 2019]

Figure 7. Bing.com. (2019). Willis Faber Dumas insurance company’s offices in Ipswitch – Bing. [online] At: https://www.bing.com/search?q=Willis+Faber+Dumas+insurance+company%E2%80%99s+offices+in+Ipswitch&pc=MOZD&form=MOZLBR [Accessed 15 Feb. 2019]

Figure 8. Blogspot (2019). [online] At: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4W69rlnW2l0/UXnIrd2Qg4I/AAAAAAAAAXM/uVpae00yi6U/s1600/Seagram++(2).jpg [Accessed 26 Feb. 2019]

Figure 9. Scva.ac.uk. (2019). The Building / About. [online] Available at: https://scva.ac.uk/about/the-building [Accessed 12 Feb. 2019]

Figure 10. http://www.fosterandpartners.com, F. (2019). Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts | Foster + Partners. [online] Fosterandpartners.com. At: https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/sainsbury-centre-for-visual-arts/ [Accessed 15 Feb. 2019]

Figure 11. Scarrattandmartyn.files.wordpress.com. (2012). [online] At: https://scarrattandmartyn.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/sainsburystair.jpg [Accessed 15 Feb. 2019]

Figure 12. http://www.fosterandpartners.com, F. (2019). Hongkong and Shanghai Bank Headquarters | Foster + Partners. [online] Fosterandpartners.com. At: https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/hongkong-and-shanghai-bank-headquarters/ [Accessed 19 Feb. 2019]                                        

Figure 13, 14. ArchDaily. (2011). AD Classics: Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank / Foster + Partners. [online] At: https://www.archdaily.com/152495/ad-classics-hong-kong-and-shanghai- [Accessed 19 Feb. 2019]

Figure 15. Photos4travel.com. (2019). [online] At: http://www.photos4travel.com/sites/default/files/Commerzbank-Tower_Frankfurt.jpg [Accessed 19 Feb. 2019]

Figure 16, 17. Krimmel, C. (2019). Commerzbank AG – Buildings. [online] Commerzbank.de. At: https://www.commerzbank.de/en/hauptnavigation/presse/mediathek/bilddaten/buildings/buildings_1.html [Accessed 26 Feb. 2019]

Figure 18, 19, 20. http://www.fosterandpartners.com, F. (2019). Masdar City | Foster + Partners. [online] Fosterandpartners.com. At: https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/masdar-city/#gallery [Accessed 12 Feb. 2019]

Figure 21. Cdn.theculturetrip.com. (2019). [online] At: https://cdn.theculturetrip.com/images/56-3660365-the-gherkin-london.jpg [Accessed 19 Feb. 2019]

Figure 22. Images.adsttc.com. (2019). [online] At: https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/5038/2679/28ba/0d59/9b00/1100/newsletter/stringio.jpg?1414199980 [Accessed 19 Feb. 2019]

Figure 23. http://www.fosterandpartners.com, F. (2019). Great Court at the British Museum | Foster + Partners. [online] Fosterandpartners.com. At: https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/great-court-at-the-british-museum/ [Accessed 19 Feb. 2019]

Figure 24. http://www.fosterandpartners.com, F. (2019). Château Margaux | Foster + Partners. [online] Fosterandpartners.com. At: https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/chateau-margaux/#gallery [Accessed 21 Feb. 2019]

Figure 25. http://www.fosterandpartners.com, F. (2019). Tocumen International Airport | Foster + Partners. [online] Fosterandpartners.com. At: https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/tocumen-international-airport/#gallery [Accessed 21 Feb. 2019]

Figure 26. http://www.fosterandpartners.com, F. (2019). SEC Armadillo | Foster + Partners. [online] Fosterandpartners.com. At: https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects/sec-armadillo/#gallery [Accessed 21 Feb. 2019]

Figure 27, 28, 29. http://www.fostersandpartners.com, F. (2019) | Reichstag Building [online] Fosterandpartners.com. At: https://www.fosterandpartners.com/projects//reichstag-new-german-parliament//#gallery [Accessed 21 Feb. 2019]

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Bfi.org. (2019). The Buckminster Fuller Institute. [online] At: https://www.bfi.org/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2019]

Encyclopedia Britannica. (2018). Norman Foster | British architect. [online] At: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lord-Norman-Foster [Accessed 19 Feb. 2019]

Foster, N. (2000). Rebuilding the Reichstag. Woodstock, N.Y: Overlook Press.

MoMA. (2019). [online] At: https://www.moma.org [Accessed 21 Feb. 2019]

Sudjic, D. (2010). Norman Foster. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Study.com. (2019). Norman Foster: Biography, Quotes & Philosophy | Study.com. [online] At: https://study.com/academy/lesson/norman-foster-biography-quotes-philosophy.html [Accessed 19 Feb. 2019]

http://www.fosterandpartners.com, F. (2019). Home | Foster + Partners. [online] Fosterandpartners.com. At: https://www.fosterandpartners.com/ [Accessed 19 Feb. 2019]

The Reichstag Building – Images inside and Out

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Maps showing The Reichstag Buildings location

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Identifying what it’s function is/was

The Reichstag building houses the Bundestag – which is the national parliament of The Federal Republic of Germany

It was originally completed in 1894 built to house the Parliament of The German Empire. In 1933 a fire broke out soon after Hitler became chancellor and the establishment of a Nazi Dictatorship in Germany. The building obtained further damage during World War II and was then left to deteriorate further until it was restored, in part, in the 1970s to become a museum of German History. After the reunification of Germany in 1990 architects Norman Foster & Partners undertook further restoration and renovation of the building for it to once again house Germany’s Parliament.

Identify what might have driven the redesign of the space

Germany was split into East and West after the defeat of Hitler in 1945, the Western Allies; USA, Great Britain and France controlling the Democratic West and The USSR controlling the Communist East. After the decline of the USSR in 1989 East Germans were fleeing, crossing into West Germany through Hungary’s newly opened border with Austria. This saw the beginning of East Germans entering West Germany. Through a mistaken announcement on a broadcast news conference East Germans were given passage into West Germany through crossing points of the Berlin Wall, which in turn saw the downfall of the German Democratic Republic, leading to the rise of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In 1990 The CDU in a coalition with the Social Democrats initiated the negotiations for the unification of Germany. In June 1991 the Bundestag voted that Berlin should become the capital of Germany once again. Later that year it was voted that the Reichstag Building should be refurbished to house a united Parliament. In 1992 a competition was run to undertake this project, of which Norman Foster won in 1993.

Bibliography

Encyclopedia Britannica. (1995). Reichstag | building, Berlin, Germany. [online] At: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Reichstag-building-Berlin-Germany [Accessed 12 Feb. 2019].

Encyclopedia Britannica. (1995). Bundestag | German government. [online] At: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bundestag [Accessed 12 Feb. 2019].

Foster, N., Jenkins, D. and Baker, F. (2000) Rebuilding the Reichstag. London: Weinfeld & Nicholson.