„Norman Foster’s Empire of Image Control“
Ian Parker schrieb vor zehn Jahre das beste Longform-Porträt über Jony Ive. Nun nahm er sich Sir Norman Foster an, einen der einflussreichsten Architekten unserer Zeit.
Foster + Partners isn’t the largest architectural firm in the world, but it’s by far the largest that has a Pritzker Prize winner in its name. Its best-known work includes Apple’s ring-shaped headquarters, in Cupertino, California; the glass replacement dome on the Reichstag building, in Berlin; and the Hearst Tower, whose diagonally intersecting panels emerge from a six-story Art Deco stone façade in midtown Manhattan. (The firm’s New York office is halfway up.)
Foster + Partners taucht namentlich in diversen Apple-Pressemitteilungen auf – von der Carnegie Library in Washington, über ihre Dubai Mall bis natürlich zu Apple Park. Schon im Artikel aus dem Jahr 2015 fand die andauernde Zusammenarbeit eine Erwähnung:
His architects there are Foster + Partners, which is led by Norman Foster. Since 2009, the same firm—“Norman’s boys,” as Ive has sometimes put it—has worked on Apple’s new campus. Inevitably, Ive is a co-designer of his house; according to Cook, he is playing the same role with the new headquarters. Apple loves its architects, Cook said, but “you can’t outsource your brain.” The building should express “the way we look at the world.”
Parkers aktuelle Publikation ist nicht besonders Apple-lastig, beinhaltet aber diese Anekdote von Steve Jobs, der die Kooperation initial startet:
Steve Jobs left little to chance. In August, 2008, Foster and his wife were being driven home from the Geneva airport when the London office called: “There’s a Mr. Jobs, wants your personal number. Can I give it to him?” Foster said yes. A few minutes later: “I need your help in Cupertino. How quickly can you get out here?” Norman said that he’d have to check with Elena and call him back; the couple had just agreed to take a break from travelling. Elena’s view was that Jobs was surely speaking to other firms—arranging a “beauty parade” of architects—and that Norman should dispatch a senior colleague. Norman called Jobs back. “I’m not talking to anyone else!” Jobs said. Foster spoke to Elena again, and to Jobs again. The Fosters had pizza in Jobs’s kitchen two weeks later.