Norman Foster is a renowned British architect known for high-tech and sustainable designs. Some of his most notable projects include the HSBC Main Building in Hong Kong and London City Hall. The HSBC building features a column-free design supported by exterior mast towers to allow for flexible floorplans and panoramic harbor views. London City Hall's distinctive oval form minimizes energy usage. Both projects demonstrate Foster's emphasis on innovative structural solutions and environmental stewardship.

1. AR. NORMAN FOSTER
SSMSCOA
Name – Kapatkar. Vaishnavi. S
Class – Fifth Sem. B.ARCH
Subject – Architectural Design

2. INTRODUCTION
• Norman Foster was born in Manchester, England in 1935.
• He went to Private School and Grammar School but left early to
earn a living.
• After leaving school he worked for two years in the City
Treasurer’s Office, studied, Commercial Law.
• Worked at Treasurer’s Office at Town hall.
• He entered Manchester University School of Architecture and
City Planning when he was 21 (1956) and Graduated in 1961.
• Later, he got a fellowship at Yale School of Architecture, and
completed his masters under Richard Rogers, also his future
business partner.

3. Foster + Partners
• In 1953 he served the Royal Air Force, driven by his Passion
for Aircrafts.
• In 1963 he set up practice in United Kingdom, under the
name of Team 4, which later became Foster + Partners.
• It has One of the most High Tech Architects of Present Time.
• Foster Associates (now known as Foster and Partners) was
founded in 1967 and now has offices in London, Berlin, and
Singapore, with over 500 Employees Worldwide.
• Foster and Partners has received over 190 awards and
Hewson over 50 National and International Competitions.
• In 1999 he was awarded the 21st Pritzker Architecture Prize
Laureate.

4. Awards & Recognition
• Foster was Knighted in 1990.
• Also he was made Life Peer in 1999-as Lord Baron Foster of Thames
Bank.
• In 1994- Awarded the AIA Gold Medal.
• Second British Architect to have won Sterling Prize twice.
• Awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1999.
• In 2009 – Prince of Asturias Award, for Arts.
• Received Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
And is a fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers. He has received
numerous more Awards and Recognition for his works over his lifetime.

5. Photographs of Awards & Recognitions

6. List of the Projects Done by Ar. Norman
Foster
• 1969–1971, Fred. Olsen Lines terminal, London Docklands, UK.
• 1970–1971, IBM Pilot Head Office, Cosham, Portsmouth, UK.
• 1971–1975, Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters, Ipswich, UK.
• 1974–1978, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East
Anglia, Norwich, UK.
• 1979–1986, HSBC Main Building, Hong Kong.
• 1992, Torre de Collserola, Barcelona, Spain.
• 1984–1993, Carré d'Art, Nîmes, France1994, Joslyn Art Museum,
Omaha, Nebraska, United States.
• 1988–1995, Metro of Bilbao, Spain.

7. • 1995, Faculty of Law, Cambridge.
• 1995–1997, The Clyde Auditorium, part of the Scottish Exhibition and
Conference Centre in Glasgow, Scotland.
• 1996, National Sea Life Centre, Birmingham, UK.
• 1991–1997, Commerzbank Tower, Frankfurt, Germany.
• 1992–1998, Hong Kong International Airport, Chek Lap Kok, Hong Kong.
• 1999, Redevelopment of the Great Court of the British Museum,
London, UK.
• 2002, Greater London Authority Building (London City Hall), London,
UK.
• 1996–2000, Millennium Bridge, London, UK.
• 2001, Expo MRT Station, Singapore.
• 2001, Al Faisaliyah Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

8. • 2001, J Sainsbury headquarters, Holborn Circus, London, UK
• 1999–2001, Lionel Robbins Building renovation, British Library of
Political and Economic Science, London School of Economics, London,
UK.
• 2002, 8 Canada Square (HSBC Group Head Office), London, UK.
• 2003, University Tektology Petronas main campus, Malaysia.
• 1997–2004, 30 St Mary Axe, Swiss Re London headquarters, London,
UK.
• 2004, The Sage Gateshead, Gateshead, UK.
• 2004, Moor House, London, UK .
• 2004, McLaren Technology Centre, Woking, UK.
• 2004, Tanaka Business School, Imperial College, London, UK.
• 2004, The Millau Viaduct, near Millau, France

9. • The Structure that Holds It Up.
• The Services that allow it to work.
• The Ecology of the building.
• Naturally Ventilated, whether you
can open the Windows, the quality
of light.
• The materials used, their Mass or
their Lightness.
• The Character of the Spaces.
• The Relationship of the Buildings to
the Skyline or Streetscape.
• The way in which the Building
Signals its presence in the city or the
countryside.
Philosophy

10. • The quality of our surroundings has a
direct influence on the quality of our
lives.
• He believes that “Architecture is
generated by the needs of people,
both material and spiritual”.
• The process of ‘reinvention’
distinguishes all of his work – past
and present – and rests on a duty to
design well and to design
responsibly – whether that is at the
scale of an airport or a door handle.
Philosophy

11. • He Anticipated trends like Energy
Conservation and Ecological
Impacts, Pioneering Design
Solutions that use totally Renewable
Sources of Energy and Offer
Dramatic reductions in CO2
Emissions.
• Environmental Awareness is an
Integral Part of his design as it
evolves to meet the Challenges of
the Next Forty Years.
Philosophy

12. Case Studies

13. London City Hall
(A Step Ahead to Neo Futurism)

14. Information
• The Distinctive Outer Shell and Unique Framework.
• 10 Floor Building.
• Oval Form enables the building to perform consuming only the
Minimum Amount of Energy necessary.
• Use of Steel Formwork for the slab results in a reduction of Costs
in Construction Waste.
• The inclined Steel Column System : Cost effectiveness,
Simplicity, Easily Constructed.
• Circular steel columns 508 mm in diameter are lined up on top of
each other connection from Floor to Floor and are angled to line
up with the Floor Plate.

15. Site Context and
Location
• Location Position Located on the
edge of the Thames, London City
Hall takes full advantage of its
seclusion from traffic noise and
fumes.
• In addition, the building is
positioned to receive the fresh air
of the Thames and optimize energy
performance according to its
position on site and orientation to
the sun.
Concept and Form
Concept of London
City Hall’s building
form is justified
according to two
main design criteria
that consist of
democratic and
environmental ideals

16. Form and Photographs
• The exterior formal moves are derived from the desire to reduce the
total glass surface area of the building.
• In general, a spherical building consumes 25% less energy than cubic
building of the same volume.
• Therefore, the solar heat gain and heat loss through London City
Hall’s building envelope is minimized.
• The design was created with the highest demands of energy
efficiency in mind.
• The bulbous nature of the building helps to reduce its outer surface
area and thereby require less energy to heat.

17. Photographs

18. • It seems so strange it has lot of weight reasons the buildings tries
to avoid direct light coming from the south and absorb , with
sloping glass façade the building has no front or back because
the shape is derived by geometrically modified sphere.
• The entirety of the building is accessible by a helical staircase
that runs 500 meters to the top floor.
• It was constructed using over 4 tones of steel and 13,100 square
meters of concrete.
• During construction, two large pipes were installed that tapped
into the water table of the River Thames.
• These pipes circulate cold water from these pipes throughout the
building during the summer months as a cooling device.
• This has greatly lessened the energy impact of the building.

19. Facts and Figures
Name of the Building London City Hall
Location The Queen's Walk, London, SE1, United
Kingdom
Architect Ar. Norman Foster
Architectural Firm Foster + Partners
Architectural Style Neo – Futuristic
Construction Duration 1998 - 2002
Area 19,814m²
Height 45m
Client More London Development. Ltd

20. Building Material
• In the Construction of this Building they have been used 10000tons of
which 29% Correspondence to the Structural Regalia Diagonally 24%
to Central Column and 47% for Beam.
• The Foundation Beam 750mm in Diameter, 333 Piles and 5500 Glass
Panels Diamond shaped.

21. • The Roof of the City Hall is
Provided with Complete
Installations of Photovoltaic Solar
Panels.
• Running the Interior Atrium is a
Stepped Ramp which continues
the Spiralling up above the
Debating Diameter.

22. Construction and Materials
Construction Time 30 Months
Intended Lifespan The building has long lasting lifespan in
terms of structure, materials and
functional flexibility.
Steel Work Structural frame - 2100 tons
Concrete(core) 13,100 sq m
Cladding 7,300 sq m of triple glazed low emissivity
coated clear glass, incorporating shading
devices.
Reinforced 1950 Tons

23. Photographs

24. Materials
• Renewable materials have been used
which include: glass, steel and
concrete.
• Even if the building symbolizes
modernity no natural materials have
been used.
• However many of the building
elements are made from recycled
materials, in order to reduce
environmental impacts, improve
performance, and optimize occupant
health and comfort.

26. Ventilation &
Daylighting
• Air –
The building is naturally ventilated, with
openable windows in all office spaces.
Heat generated by computers and
lights is recycled.
• Daylighting –
The City Hall is oriented towards the
south.
The building has numerous light sensor
and switches that are software
programmable to provide a versatile
and intelligent lighting control system.
The building has 3,312 luminaires.

27. Water and Electricity
• Water has a fundamental role in the building’s HVAC system.
• The building makes use of ground water which is pumped up into
the building through boreholes at a temperature of 11-13 °C.
• This water is used to cool the building, in fact many horizontal
steel elements are filled with it to maintain a comfortable
internal temperature.
• After being used in cooling and having reached a higher
temperature the ground water is used to flush toilets.
• The energy consumption has been greatly reduced by using
ground water instead of refrigeration to air condition the
building.

28. Energy and Solar Panels
• London City Hall is symbol a modern architecture. Due to its egg
shape, which has made possible a sensible reduction of the building’s
surface (about 25% less than the equivalent rectangular building),
noticeable results have been achieved in terms of energy savings.
• Many Sensors are actually made to reduce Energy Consumptions.
• In 2007 solar panels were installed on the roof of the building to
further reduce cooling and heating costs.
Photovoltaic cells work by converting sunlight into electricity.
Photovoltaic technology is safe, proven and does not release any
emissions that contribute to climate change.
• The solar panel send power to the electrical system and HVAC systems
reducing the building’s CO2 emissions.

29. Shadows
Winter Solstice
taken on 21st
December
Summer Solstice
taken on 24st
June

32. Sketches

33. Hong Kong, Shanghai Bank

34. Information
• The new Hong Kong Bank building is the headquarters for the bank’s
international and Hong Kong operations, and serves as a local branch
as well.
• It stands on a prime piece of property in Central Hong Kong,
overlooking to its North Statue Square.
• It rises 590 feet above Des Voeux Road on its north side-47 floors
above ground, four below- and has a gross area of over one million
square feet, with net floor areas of up to 29,000 square feet.
• The new headquarters for Hong Kong Bank, program called for a
banking hall, vaults, offices for various administrative departments, a
computer center, dining and conference facilities, executive offices,
and an apartment for the bank chairman.

35. Site Plan
• The site plan and north-south
section show the swath of open
space that extends from the Star
Ferry in Hong Kong’s Harbor to the
Hong Kong Bank.
• The section also indicates the
location of the seawater tunnel and
suns coop, and the height of the
building relative to surrounding
structures.

36. Ground Floor – The Public Plaza
• At ground floor level the public plaza which passes beneath the tower
is interrupted by just eight steel masts that carry the entire weight of
the superstructure down to bed- rock, and transfer wind loading to
the foundation.
• Furthermore, the uninterrupted public pas- sage under the building
precludes a sense of grand processional entrance.
• The two angled escalators (so positioned at the directive of the
Chinese fung-shui, or environmental diviner, as are a number of other
elements in the building) that lead up through the curved belly into
the banking hall do provide an excitingly surrealistic effect, but do not
make up for the paucity of the generalized plaza experience, paltry in
comparison to associations with grand bank entrances and to the very
expectations aroused by this proud and dramatic glass and aluminum
structure.

38. The Plans

39. The Plans

40. Plans
• The floor plans show how the building step back as it rises.
• The plaza is largely open except for passenger elevators and
mechanical riser on the east side.
• Floors three through twelve have an atrium in their central bay.
• Floors thirteen through twenty-nine fill the entire three-bay, 180-
foot width. From the thirtieth through the thirty-sixth floors, the
building step back to two bays and above the thirty-seventh
floor, used mainly for executive functions, the building is only
one bay wide.

41. Elevation

42. Section

43. Elevation and Section
• The east-west section reveals the stepping back of the floors
along the building’s east side to meet zoning requirements.
• Despite these setbacks, the stacks of service mod- ules along the
east side of the building rise vertically, making the building look
rectilinear when viewed from the north or like a series of thin,
“mechanistic” slices when viewed from the east.

44. Terrace • Outside each double-height
space is a terrace used not
only for recreation but also
as refuge areas in case of
fire.
• Evident is the suspension
truss, as well as the
typhoon bracing for the
windows.
• The glass- enclosed escape
stairways are finely de-
tailed

45. Terrace
• Visitors and employees alike move by elevator to the various
double-story spaces in the building and, from there, by escalator
to the intervening floors.
• At the central elevator core, Foster has pulled the floor away
from the elevator shafts, allowing a view of them rising through
the building.
• The dramatization of movement continues in the double-story
levels, where switch-back escalators, along with trusses and
hangers, sweep through the space, and where glass elevator
shafts and escalator undercarriages reveal the motion of
machinery.

46. The Circulation
• Functional zones correspond to these five
structural ones: The truss levels are double
height and have specialized common
functions, and the highspeed elevators, locate
at the west side of the building, are
programmed to stop at them. From these
floors, vertical circulation is via escalators, to
provide a more sociable way of moving
through the zones than by elevator. Each zone
accommodates a single bank function or
several related ones, and the con- cept is that
the zones are “social vil- lages’” subsets of the
bank as a whole, with which the employees
identify.

47. Material Study

48. Structure
• The structure of the building is its most
striking aspect, visually and functionally.
Both for reasons of flexible office
planning and to allow clear views of the
harbor from all points, the floors are
virtually column-free. Four mast towers,
each composed of four tubular steel
columns connected by haunches beams
to act as Vierendeel trusses, rise on
either side of the building, the front and
back pairs located outside the building
envelope. At five intermediate levels,
suspension trusses suspend the weight
of the floors in the zone below.

49. Daylight Ventilation
• Looking up to the ceiling of the atrium on a sunny day one sees
what appears to be some kind of glazed vault through which
sunlight gently filters.
• But this cannot be, since there are 25 floors of offices above this
ceiling.
• In fact it’s all done by mirrors. This is the famous “suns coop”--a
huge periscope projecting sunlight onto the banking halls and
through the glazed underbelly to the pub- lic plaza beneath the
building.
• It has two main components: a bank of flat mirrors attached to
the south side of the building at level 12 and a curved canopy of
convex mirrors suspended over the atrium

51. Daylight Ventilation
• The mirrors move in one plane only, adjusting to the height of
the sun above the horizon but not to its east/west position.
• This means that the light falling inside the building moves across
the atrium space during the day, just as it would if shining
directly through a skylight.
• The mechanism is basically the same as that for motorized
external louvres, except that the motors are con- trolled by a
computer programmed to know precisely how high the sun will
be on every day of the year.

52. Sketches

53. Sketches

54. Quotes

55. Thank You !