Norman Foster Quotes

United Kingdom, Architect
June 1, 1935

Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, OM, RA is an English architect whose company, Foster + Partners, maintains an international design practice famous for high-tech architecture.

If you weren’t an optimist, it would be impossible to be an architect.

Norman Foster
Manhattan, one of the most moneyed spots on the planet, also has one of the greatest concentrations of people in its skyscrapers. Its also, of course, the place where every architect wants to build his tower.

Norman Foster

Everything inspires me; sometimes I think I see things others don’t.

Norman Foster
- Think
- See
- Inspires
It takes a lot of effort to make a building look effortless.

Norman Foster
- Effort
- Look
- Building
Our object in life should be to accumulate a great number of grand questions to be asked and resolved in eternity.

Norman Foster
- Life
- Questions
- Eternity
I'm not a creature of habit. I like to find things from unexpected sources.

Norman Foster
- Habit
- Unexpected
- Sources
Architecture is an expression of values.

Norman Foster
Control is the wrong word. The practice is very much about sharing, and, in any creative practice, some individuals, whether partners or directors, are much closer to certain projects than I could ever be.

Norman Foster
- Control
- Practice
- Sharing

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

Norman Foster
- Future
- Design
- Unknown
The pencil and computer are, if left to their own devices, equally dumb and only as good as the person driving them.

Norman Foster
- Person
- Driving
- Computer