Essays on Norman Foster

(Student’s Full Name)

According to John Arend, Mike Benkert, Audrey deFilippis and Saretta Tillmaand, when the Commerzbank building opened its doors in 1997, the “53-story” edifice became the one of the “tallest” buildings located in Europe (1). Nevertheless, the edifice’s distinctiveness did not come from its height, but, rather, it came from the way in which it combined “form, inventiveness, and technical expertise” (Arend, Benkert, deFilippis, & Tillmaand 1). The design and construction of the Commerzbank saw the “[b]reaking away from the American model of deep-planned, air-conditioned structures” that have a “central service core” (Arend, Benkert, deFilippis, & ...

(Student’s Full Name)

Norman Foster, who clearly designed the HSBC Bank in Hong Kong and the Commerzbank in Frankfurt for the financial industry, employed two different approaches when designing each of these buildings. Foster when designing the HSBC Bank ensured that the building was created to facilitate and mirror the ways in which technology is used in today’s world. However, the Commerzbank edifice was designed by Foster to ensure the efficient use of energy while integrating green spaces into the architecture. It can be argued that Foster in designing the HSBC Bank the architect focused on technological ...

INTRODUCTION

My research will examine techniques that optimize financial, environmental, quality, and energy aspects of contemporary architecture. The work of Norman Foster and Partners will be considered in detail. This award-winning firm has many high-profile projects concerned with energy efficacy. I will examine Foster designed buildings in order to better understand strategies for maximizing savings and encasing ecological conservation through passive solar design.

Principles of Passive Solar Building Design

Passive Heating is designed with Solar Geometry; solar geometry uses the natural path of the sun across the sky in both the summer and the winter to reduce the need for cooling by air conditioning, the provide ...