The largest retrospective ever of Norman Foster’s architecture at the Centre Pompidou

Examining over 130 projects through drawings, sketches, models, and dioramas (including some never before seen in France) in an area of 23,700 sq.ft. (2,200 m²), the upcoming exhibition of the work of Norman Foster will be the largest and richest retrospective ever dedicated to the architect. The event is scheduled for May 10 – August 7, 2023, at the Pompidou Center in Paris. This will be a trip through time that will make it possible to appreciate the different periods of Foster’s work, the evolution of his approach, and his ongoing respect for the planet – all characteristics that, in different ways, have made the practice’s designs take on an identity defining role for their locations. Regarded today as one of the greatest exponents of high-tech architecture, Foster successfully makes the technical, economic, social, and environmental aspects of all his projects interact, to the point that the architecture becomes a symbol of its city or place. In other words, his designs spark a constant mental association between place and building.

The scenography of the exhibition was the work of the architect himself and executed in collaboration with the entire Foster + Partners studio and the Norman Foster Foundation. The projects will be grouped together according to seven different themes intended to embrace major current issues and express a commitment to engage with the complexities of large industrial companies: Nature and Urbanity, Skin and Bones, Vertical City, History and Tradition, Planning and Place, Networks and Mobility, and Future. At the entrance will be additional drawings, sketchbooks, sketches, and photos by the architect that have never before been exhibited in France.

The overall experience of the event will be further enhanced by some of the artworks that inspired Foster’s projects by artists such as Fernand Léger, Constantin Brancusi, Umberto Boccioni, and Ai Weiwei to name a few.

Last but not least, the retrospective will be accompanied by a 264-page catalog featuring around eighty of Foster’s most significant projects.

 

Some of the exhibited projects

Among the projects on display is the Millau Viaduct, which has linked Clermont-Ferrand and Béziers since 2004. Its sheer dimensions immediately put it in the record books.

Inaugurated in 1993, the Carré d’Art-Musée d’Art Contemporain in Nîmes hosts periodically renewed permanent and temporary exhibitions, its location simultaneously allowing a constant dialogue with a nearby Roman temple.

Lunar Habitation, designed in 2012, is a four-person lunar base that can withstand meteorites, gamma radiation, and huge temperature fluctuations. The studio, part of a consortium set up by the European Space Agency to explore the possibilities of 3D printing to construct lunar dwellings, designed the geometry of the structure in collaboration with its consortium partners, demonstrating the potential of this technology to create structures that are close to natural biological systems.

Other projects examined include the Shanghai Banking Corporation (Hong Kong, 1979–86), Hong Kong International Airport (1992–98), and Apple Park (Cupertino, United States, 2009–17).

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