What makes a landmark? Inside world-renowned architectural firm Foster & Partners
The Shard, the Cheesegrater, the Walkie-Talkie… London has an endearing habit of adopting its landmarks – not just into its psyche – but into its lexicon. Evidently, this shared language has emerged to soften the blow when an uncharacteristically titanic structure barges its way onto our skyline. The exception to this rule is The Gherkin, whose official address is 30 St Mary Axe. It’s been an essential part of the City’s modern fabric for over 10 years now and this slightly ridiculous nickname is a clear sign of affection for its softly shaded curves.
Crucially, it’s also the only nicknamed building that was designed by London-based architectural firm Foster + Partners. Founded by “starchitect” Norman Foster in 1967, it’s received over 685 awards for excellence and won over 140 national and international competitions for its work. Apart from the aforementioned Gherkin, its architects have re-defined Trafalgar Square, given the Greater London Assembly a striking headquarters in City Hall, created the home of football in Wembley Stadium and connected the north and south banks of the Thames via the Millennium Bridge.
Needless to say, its riverside offices in Battersea practically pumps out landmarks. But this is never its intention, insists Grant Brooker, executive director of Foster + Partners, who is showing me around the premises. We’re standing in front of the original model of The Gherkin, which is missing a core detail – the darkly shaded spiral that winds its way up the tower, like the red stripe that runs around a Christmas candy cane.
“It was added later,” says Brooker. But did no one in this cavernous set of buildings ever mention that the building looked a bit like a pickled cucumber? “No, the name just sort of stuck to it. We hadn’t… I mean, I think you should resist naming a building. If people want to name a building, let that be, but otherwise I don’t think you should try to pre-empt it.” It’s interesting that such a humorously named effigy should emerge from “a place of real darkness”, according to Brooker, as it stands on the former site of the Baltic Exchange, which was bombed by the Provisional IRA in 1992. So the practice felt a soft, gentle form was preferable to an aggressive skyscraper and opened up the ground floor of the building to create a communal plaza.
South Quay Plaza on the Docks, designed by Foster & Partners
“It was universally well-received. It sat very comfortably in the City and I think it was very important that it was a building that people could come to and say, ‘Actually, we’re happy with the way this feels’ and not shy away from it.”
The redevelopment of Trafalgar Square from ‘96 –’03 also saw what was previously “a giant hazardous island” opened up as a civic space. “The roads that were established around it never anticipated that traffic. It became this wall of cars and buses between you and the square so nobody could go there.” By connecting it to the National Gallery, not only did it allow greater footfall for the institution, it also allowed pedestrian access and enough room for a stage, completely changing the way the space was used.
The new Crossrail hub at Canary Wharf, gleaming by the river like a silver Chinese fingertrap, is a recent new opening that also incorporates a civic touch, packed as it is with shops, restaurants and a public garden. The model for that project – made using a 3D printer like most of its models these days – sits behind us, surrounded by tiny benches, trees and plastic people with fingernail-sized shopping bags.
Bizarrely, there’s an entire room full of minuscule street furniture in Foster + Partners – a particular highlight was the drawerful of red buses – as well as a small film studio, a minimalist staff coffee bar and a library stocked with samples of every construction material imaginable, where they’re currently experimenting with running fibre optics through fabric.
The hangar-like open plan floor is surrounded by shelves packed with models, but photographs were rendered impossible by the amount of top secret projects dotted around. A section of the ceiling at Apple’s new “campus” in Cupertino takes up a good portion of the room while a model of it sits on a desk below, looking like no building I’ve ever seen before, like a giant futuristic doughnut resting in the middle of an alpine forest. “Their standards are just so high,” says Brooker. “They have an extraordinary set of ideals.”
Though the firm has offices all over the world, its London headquarters is where everything really happens. Including its latest project, South Quay Plaza, which will house the UK’s tallest residential tower at 69 storeys high – to put this into context, that’s only three storeys shorter than The Shard. Major housebuilder Berkeley Homes South East is behind the ambitious scheme in the Docklands, providing 888 new homes across two buildings, a pocket park and a dockside promenade. Planning permission was granted in April and construction will begin in the New Year.
City Hall, another iconic design from the firm
Londoners have often struggled to warm to monolithic skyscrapers but most developers say it’s just something we’ll have to get used to as it’s the only way to build enough new homes to house our growing population. But, Brooker argues, there’s no reason why a building that pierces the skyline can’t touch the people on the ground, too, if it’s well-designed.
“We always say if you build high, you’ve got to be really clear about what it is you think you’re putting back that justifies that. We’ve built South Quay Plaza on a 45 degree rotation towards the dockside so you get some real daylight coming through. Then we’re only building on a third of the site – which is very unusual in that area – and really landscaping the connections from the DLR to the dockside, creating a straight green line between them, making sure the building is playing the right civic role.”
For its next project, Foster + Partners will leave the city for one of the most barren places on earth – 18,000 acres of desert in New Mexico, USA. In fact, it’s so desolate that it’s known as La Jornada del Meurto (the Journey of Death), which is pretty ominous when you consider it’ll be home to Virgin Galactic, set to be the first commercial spaceport. “When we heard there was going to be a project called Spaceport America, we knew it was going to be an interesting one,” says Brooker. It’ll take the form of two or three hangar spaces combined to form one floor, with the aim of making a powerful building that doesn’t destroy the extraordinary landscape.
Civic spaces, public parks and vast deserts aside, Foster + Partners is primarily in the business of creating buildings, and not only that, buildings that will blend seamlessly into our everyday lives and, hopefully one day, be universally loved. “What you really want is for the building to be held in affection. If it’s doing the right things in the right way, then people will respond positively to it and then it’s not an issue about the scale. People are very clear about this; if a building offers nothing to its surroundings, if it doesn’t try to integrate and be a part of that fabric, then it will never be loved.”
Visit fosterandpartners.com and southquayplaza.london.