Sir Norman Foster Architecture

Sir Norman Foster (สถาปนิกชื่อดังระดับโลก)

Norman Foster, the world famous architect, recently bought the Château de Vincy in canton Vaud. The new lord of the manor is vowing to become an active resident in the Lake Geneva region.
Born in Manchester in 1935, Lord Foster of Thames Bank – better known as Norman Foster before his British knighthood in 2000 – has forged a reputation as one of the world’s most spectacular contemporary architects. His work with his company, Foster+Partners, includes the 2.4 kilometre Millau motorway viaduct in the middle of the French countryside, the “Gherkin” office building in London, Hong Kong’s Chep Lap Kok airport, the restoration of the German Reichstag building, or the Chesa Futura residence in St Moritz -- which conjures up images of a giant pumpkin.

He is a pioneer amongst his contemporaries of natural ventilation in buildings, a feature that was harnessed in ancient Mediterranean or Arab architecture. One of Lord Foster's biggest projects at the moment is the futuristic new town of Masdar, commissioned by the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi. Masdar is meant to be a pioneering, carbon neutral, environmentally-friendly town, located in the parched environment of the desert.

Yet, for his new residencee, Lord Foster has chosen an elegant 18th century manor house cast amid the vineyards overlooking the village of Gilly in canton Vaud, and Lake Geneva. The only outwardly obvious link between some of his work and the manor is the geometric form of the French garden. He already divides his time between his family in the elite Swiss Alpine resort of St Moritz, and his offices on the south bank of the River Thames in London.

“I love Switzerland, that’s why I’m living there and not here,” he explained at the vast glass and steel headquarters of Foster + Partners in Battersea. “It’s about the quality life, it’s not about taxes or anything like that. My children are at school there and I enjoy returning there.”

Foster bought Vincy from German industrialist Charles Grohe last year, and aims to move in once some building work is completed. Not surprisingly for an architect, he values aesthetics, but he also prizes the local character of his new adopted region.

“The best of that individuality is that you go to a restaurant in that area, and you actually have the fish from the lake and the choice of the wine from the village – that’s unbelievable,“ Foster enthused. “Go down to another restaurant a few minutes away and the chances that you’ll be able to have the wine from that village, or the next,” he added.

Expect to hear more of Lord Foster here. He is chairing the architectural competition for the renovation of canton Vaud’s parliament hall in Lausanne. And he signalled a desire to contribute his know-how to local institutions. “It would be nice in some way if there was a possibility for that experience to also relate locally.”