C 04 71
Luis Fernández-Galiano (LFG): Everybody
knows you love flying, but I wonder how it
has inspired your architecture. When you
turned 75, you recollected how many differ-
ent models of aircraft you had piloted, and
they happened to be exactly 75...
Norman Foster (NF): It was one of those
extraordinary explorations. I got all my log
books, in which I’d noted every flight in
each type of flying machine, and discovered
I had piloted 75 different craft – micro-
lights, aerobatic monoplanes, vintage bi-
planes, military fighters and business jets.
It is interesting that professional pilots rarely
cross the boundaries between these differ-
ent flying machines. If the pilot of a light
aircraft has to make a landing without an
engine into a remote field, then an emergency
would be declared with calls of “mayday” to
alert the emergency services. However, for a
glider pilot that would be a normal procedure
when running out of lift on a long-distance
cross-country flight. Similarly, the worlds of
fixed wing and helicopters are normally quite
separate as the skills are different, even if
the flight environment is the same. I have
been very fortunate to enjoy an extraordi-
nary cross-section of aviation experiences,
to have been able to fly so many types from
spitfires to racing sailplanes. It crosses my
same way as buildings or even furniture. So
for me, flight and design are both universal
activities.
LFG: Your piloting being so important to
you means perhaps that you enter every field
with a sense of discovery and a sense of risk...
NF: Yes, I think that the same curiosity
that drives me to explore different experi-
ences, whether aviation, cycling, or cross-
country skiing, and my fascination with the
marathon – the cross-country skiing mara-
thon as a race, the marathon bike ride with
colleagues – is perhaps mirrored in building
projects, which also assume marathon-like
experiences. A building such as the Monaco
Yacht Club was a 12-year haul, and the same
was true for the Carré d’Art in Nîmes. How do
you lead a team and keep fresh over that long
a period, so you don’t lose the design plot
along the way? With some projects, you have
to keep focused and sharp, pacing yourself
over a long period of time, just like in a mara-
thon race. Of course you can also have the
polar opposite, in those megaprojects which
mind that there are parallels in my attitude
to architecture. Similarities in the sense that
either by virtue of interest or passion, most
architects and engineers, like pilots, tend
to specialise in their chosen fields. I realise
now that in design as well as in aviation,
I have crossed conventional boundaries. As
a designer I am just as excited by the chal-
lenges of high architecture for civic events
as by low-cost construction for a mass audi-
ence. Infrastructure also inspires me in the
«I realise now that in
design as well as in
aviation, I have crossed
conventional boundaries»
