The Art Of Architecture at The Nasher Scultpture Center

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The
art of
architecture
FOSTER+PARTNERS

Continuing its investigation of contemporary architecture, the Nasher
Sculpture Center will present a retrospective of the work of Pritzker Prize-
winning architect Norman Foster and his architectural firm, Foster + Partners.
Scheduled to coincide with the grand opening of the new, Foster-designed
Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House at the Dallas Center for Performing
Arts, the exhibition will explore Foster + Partners' major architectural
achievements in a practice that spans the past four decades. Focusing
on cultural buildings and civic spaces, as well as select infrastructure projects.

Foster + Partners: Computer Visualization of the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera
House, Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, 2003-09. © Foster + Partners

The Art of Architecture: Foster + Partners will present important milestones in
the firm's practice that reflect its emphases on structural innovation and
sustainable design and provide important precedents for the Winspear
Opera House. Architectural models, along with drawings, renderings,
photographs, and videos, will give insight into the formal and conceptual
underpinnings of Foster + Partners' architecture and provide context for
better understanding their new contribution to the panoply of modernist
architecture in Dallas

Foster + Partners: The Great Court at the British Museum, London
1994–2000 Photo Nigel Young © Foster + Partners

From the time of its founding in 1967, the firm has maintained that the quality
of surroundings has a direct influence on the quality of lives and the culture
and climate of place. Foster + Partners’ philosophy was born out of early
experimental projects undertaken with R. Buckminster Fuller in the 1970s that
attempted to align the built environment more closely with natural forms and
processes. The ideals of programmatic flexibility, structural transparency, and
ecological sensitivity are hallmarks of Foster + Partner’s practice that have
been employed to great effect in projects as diverse as concert halls, airports,
and office buildings.

Early cultural buildings, such as the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the
University of East Anglia in Norwich, England (1974–78 and 1988–1991)
refined the firm’s initial investigations of lightweight, flexible structures
and initiated their exploration of cultural buildings as places for
meaningful cultural and social interaction. Its open layout, louvered
sunscreen, and full-height windows at each end of the building create
a changeable interior space with finely controlled natural light that
visually extends out into the surrounding landscape. More recent projects,
such as Swiss Re Headquarters in London (1997–2004), continue to reflect
the ideals of the firm’s initial experiments. The first ecological skyscraper
in London, the tower develops ideas first explored in the Climatroffice, a
theoretical project with Buckminster Fuller that promoted a more intimate
connection between nature and the workplace. Its energyconscious
enclosure resolves walls and roof into a continuous triangulated,
breathable skin allowing column-free floor space, lights, views, a series
of sky gardens, and natural cooling.

Foster + Partners: Millau Viaduct, Gorge du Tarn, France 1993–2004
Photo Nigel Young © Foster + Partners

In addition to these projects, the exhibition will feature some of the largest
and most notable structures in the world, including the Great Court at the British
Museum, the Reichstag in Berlin, Trafalgar Square in London, and
the new Terminal 3 at the Beijing International Airport.