56 Quotes by Norman Foster

Every time I’ve flown an aircraft, or visited a steelworks, or watched a panel-beater at work, I’ve learned something new that can be applied to buildings.

There’s a snobbery at work in architecture. The subject is too often treated as a fine art, delicately wrapped in mumbo-jumbo. In reality, it’s an all-embracing discipline taking in science, art, maths, engineering, climate, nature, politics, economics.

Our object in life should be to accumulate a great number of grand questions to be asked and resolved in eternity...

I’m not a creature of habit. I like to find things from unexpected sources.

I tend to move between turtlenecks and shirts and ties. I don’t really have a uniform in the sense that some people might.

I would never wear anything with a logo. That I really find difficult. It’s a frustration that I’ll find a nice shirt or something and it’s got 50 prints of the logo on it – why do they do this?

If the only constant is change then design is going to go on for as long as human beings inhabit the planet, and beyond the planet.

As an architect, you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown.

I hope that any expansion of London will learn from the planning examples of some of its most desirable areas such as Chelsea, Notting Hill, Belgravia and Mayfair. All are characterised by high density and a generosity of green spaces.