Sir Norman Foster (Manchester, 1935) studied architecture and urban planning at the University of Manchester. He obtained a scholarship to Yale University, where he took his Masters degree. Foster explored the technical and structural possibilities of buildings and became one of the leading figures in high-tech architecture. He designed and built a surprisingly large number of works, but Foster's most famous and most valued design is the headquarters of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in Hong Kong. It is considered to be a masterpiece of high-tech architecture.
Sir Norman Foster and Partners is a design group with offices in Berlin, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Hong Kong, London and Tokyo.
Sir Norman Foster and color
A great deal of white is used in Foster's buildings. A color that in fact is applied as a neutral framework for carefully used accents of frequently more saturated colors. In the past decade many buildings have used one color, mostly blue, in surroundings of neutral grays and whites. In a number of Foster's more recent projects or those still being developed, color is applied more directly. An example of this is the new building for the Imperial College in London, with blocks of primary color distributed over different floors. In other buildings colors are used for identification, such as on the doors of the new Reichstag.
The use of color accents and variations in white, fitting in with the character of the materials on which they are introduced, can have an enormous influence on the appearance of buildings and designed objects.
These high-tech "framework" colors and accent colors can be found in the Sir Norman Foster Collection. The collection consists of 30 colors, chosen carefully from the many different projects where color is used in its own characteristic way. The project names are used for the color coding. The colors are named using a combination of the project number and the color name.
Alongside the Mendini Collection and The 30 Colors of Rem Koolhaas, this Norman Foster Collection illustrates another way of coloring which will certainly do itself justice with use in a high-tech environment. Sikkens is therefore proud that the collaboration with Sir Norman Foster has resulted in such a contemporary collection with such an individual signature.
The collection has also appeared in book form under ISBN 90 6611 851 2 (Dutch version).
Most colors from the Sir Norman Foster Collection can be quickly and simply produced in different Sikkens product qualities. We would refer you to your local Sikkens supplier for more detailed information.