Vintage Desk with Metal Legs by Norman Foster for Vitra

With over 250 projects in 40 countries around the world, the extremely prolific Lord Norman Robert Foster (b.1935) is arguably the most successful architect of our time. Often (and increasingly) driven by a sustainable approach, his designs will doubtlessly have a lasting impact for generations to come.

Foster was born into a working class family and raised in the industrial city of Manchester, England. From an early age he exhibited an interest in architecture, drawing inspiration from his hometown, as well as from his idols Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Le Corbusier. Foster studied at the School of Architecture and City Planning at the University of Manchester (g.1961) and subsequently at Yale University, where he obtained his Master’s degree in Architecture. During his time at Yale, Foster was exposed to architects Paul Rudolph (1918-1997), Serge Chermayeff (1900-1996), and Vincent Scully (b. 1920), who all had an influence on his work throughout his career.

In 1963, Foster, together with Su Brumwell, Wendy Cheesman, and Richard Rogers—whom he met during his time at Yale—founded the architectural practice Team 4 and soon gained recognition for high-tech design. In 1967, after Team 4 had disbanded, Foster and wife Wendy Cheesman (d. 1989) founded Foster Associates in London, which is now known as Foster + Partners. In the mid-1970s, the firm gained international acclaim with its design for the Willis Facer and Dumas headquarters (constructed between 1970 and 1975) in Ipswich, England. Foster’s sustainable design included an open-plan concept that was radical for its time.

Foster had a very fruitful partnership with architect Richard Buckminster Fuller, which lasted from 1968 until Fuller’s death in 1983. They collaborated on several projects that focused specifically on environmental awareness, including the Samuel Beckett Theatre project (1971) in Oxford. By rewriting strict architectural standards into more “green” or bio-friendly terms, Foster paved the way for a new genre of environmental architecture. Using natural resources, such as light and ventilation—alongside celebrating the quality of life within the spaces—Foster is a master of using technology as a means, not an end.

His well-known projects include the Millennium Tower in Japan (1989); the Reichstag in Berlin (1992-1999); 30 St. Mary Ace in London, known colloquially as the London Gherkin (1997-2004); the Great Court at the British Museum in London (1994-2000); and the World Trade Center in New York (2002). Beyond Foster’s many architectural accomplishments, he also maintains a successful career in furniture design, with standouts like Nomos Table (1987) for Tecno, Airline Seating System (1999) for Vitra, 505 Sofa and Table Series (2002) for Walter Knoll, RF1 Stacking Chair (2006) for Randers, and the Teso Table (2013) for Molteni.

Over the course of his illustrious career, Foster has received many awards and accolades, including the Royal Gold Medal for Architecture (1983), the Gold Medal of the Academy of Architecture of France (1991), the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal (1994), the 21st Pritzker Architect Prize Laureate (1999), and the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts (2009). He was knighted by the Queen of England in 1990 and given the title ‘Lord Foster of Thames Bank’ in 1999.

Today, Foster + Partners’ work spans a wide array of projects, from urban masterplans and public infrastructure to private housing and furniture design. If you are curious to hear more about Foster’s own thoughts on the future of design, check out his TED Talk for the 2007 DLD Conference in Munich, titled Norman Foster: My Green Agenda for Architecture. Here he discusses how architects can use computers to create pollution-free design. 

Swiss founders Willi and Erika Fehlbaum launched Vitra in 1934 as a shopfitting business in the Basel region, near the border of Germany and Switzerland. During a visit to America in 1953, the Fehlbaums became enamored with the innovative designs of Charles and Ray Eames—known today for the iconic Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman (1956). In 1957, Vitra obtained licensing rights to produce Herman Miller furniture for the European market and began to manufacture the work of Charles and Ray Eames, as well as George Nelson—famous for the Pop Art-inspired Marshmallow Sofa (1956). 

In 1967, after working closely with Danish designer Verner Panton, Vitra introduced the Panton Chair (originally conceived in 1959/60). The design was deemed a modernist landmark because it was the first wholly plastic, stackable, cantilever chair made in one piece. Vitra soon became internationally recognized as a company that collaborates with talented, progressive designers to create cutting-edge, high-quality products.

Rolf Fehlbaum (b. 1941), eldest son to Willi and Erika, became Vitra’s Chief Executive in 1977. In 1981, after a disastrous fire at the Vitra facilities in Weil am Rhein, Germany, Rolf commissioned British architect Nicholas Grimshaw to design a new manufacturing hall. More architectural commissions followed, and the Vitra Campus (as the architectural ensemble came to be known) earned acclaim for the way its high-concept, contemporary buildings integrated into the surrounding natural landscape and residential areas. Architect Frank Gehry designed the first public building, the Vitra Design Museum (1989), to house Rolf’s ever-growing collection of chairs, the largest collection in the world.  Other buildings on campus were designed by the esteemed architects Tadao Ando (Conference Pavilion, 1993), Zaha Hadid (Fire Station, 1993), Alvaro Siza (Factory Building, 1994), and Herzog & de Meuron (VitraHaus, 2010).

After thirty years, Vitra’s partnership with Herman Miller was mutually terminated in 1984. Vitra, however, acquired the design rights to pieces by Charles and Ray Eames and George Nelson for Europe and the Middle East. For six decades, Vitra has been producing first-class furniture from iconic and internationally renowned designers and architects. Other famous designs in Vitra’s collection include Isamu Noguchi’s Noguchi Table (1939), Shiro Kuramata’s How High the Moon Chair (1986), Borek Sípek's Ota Otanek Chair (1988), Philippe Starck's Louis XX Stacking Chair (1992), and numerous patterns and textiles created by Alexander Girard. Vitra has also won countless design-related awards, such as the Lucky Strike Design Award in 1994, and their pieces can be found in design museums around the world, including the Tate Modern and Design Museum in London, Museum of Modern Art in New York, and, of course, Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein.

* Images courtesy of Vitra