Good afternoon everyone and a very warm welcome. I'm so happy to see a full house. My name is Martina Droth. I'm the Paul Mellon director of the Yale Center for British Art. It's a pleasure to start this academic year with such a special program: the conversation between Lord Norman Foster and Dean Deborah Burke. I want to extend my gratitude to the Terry F. Green 1969 Fund for British Art and Culture. This program is part of our architects in conversation series, inspired by the building we are in, designed by Louis Kahn. Kahn died before we opened in 1977; he also designed the Yale University Art Gallery across the street. Half a century later, that building was renovated by Dean Deborah Burke and turned into the School of Art. I can't think of a more perfect way to mark the beginning of the semester. Deborah Burke, Dean of the Yale School of Architecture and AIA Gold Medal winner, will be in conversation with Lord Norman Foster, Pritzker Prize laureate and distinguished Yale alumnus, whose vision and generosity includes the design of the School of Management and the Lord Norman Foster visiting professorship. Lady Elena Foster and family are with us. There will be time for questions. Please join me in welcoming Dean Deborah Burke and Lord Norman Foster.
So, those of you from the architecture school know I spend much of my time introducing people. My dear friend Norman Foster has done me the enormous favor of offering to introduce himself, which I welcomed warmly. Norman, that's the extent of my introduction. It's all yours.
It's almost 64 years ago to the day that I came here for the master's course in architecture. I graduated a year later and started practice in London a year after that. I want to share some reflections going back to those early years. Architecture starts with a social agenda: the power of design to improve quality of life materially and spiritually, to bring joy and beauty, to anticipate change and a future optimistic view. The means are technology, the culture of technology, and the lessons of history. There is a direct link between technology and sustainability. When we started in the 1970s, it was the birth of the green movement. I also want to touch on the importance of multidisciplinary teamwork: architecture is too important to be left to architects alone. A holistic view demands simultaneous inquiry. Finally, connections: inspirations from other disciplines, links between students and practice, between ideas and innovation. My journey started at age 16 working as an office boy in a Victorian masterpiece by Waterhouse. After national service, I discovered Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright at my local library. At 21, I started architecture at Manchester University. My first design was a Boat House Retreat: a single roof unifying two buildings—a cottage and boat house. That unifying device has been constant in my career. At Yale in 1961-62, I asked Paul Rudolph to work alongside an engineer; he found one, and that parallel working has been formative. My design challenged the central core model, inspired by Louis Kahn's served and servant spaces. I collaborated with Buckminster Fuller for the last 12 years of his life. In the 1960s and 70s, solar energy, wind power, recycling, desalination were fringe activities. Our early projects include a democratic factory with a single entrance and innovative radiant heating. The Willis Faber building in the 1970s reinvented the workplace with natural light and adaptability to digital technology. The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank competition in 1979 came from that student scheme. The Sainsbury Center for Visual Arts brought museum and faculty together under one roof. That model led to reinventing airport terminals. In Beijing and Riyadh, airports have become urban environments. Trafalgar Square transformation in the late 1990s turned a traffic roundabout into a cultural heart. The Reichstag was a manifesto of green energy and public space. Our work with artists, like at the Hearst Building and Norton Museum, shows the power of culture. The JP Morgan Tower opening next month continues this tradition. Thank you.
Norman, that was great. Thank you. Yale is an extraordinary institution, and we are proud to count you among our most accomplished alumni. I would love it if you could talk about your time here. I describe it as a stool with three or four legs: Paul Rudolph, Serge Chermayeff, Vincent Scully, and Louis Kahn. Can you describe your education around these characters?
your hand.
Yes. On the cross-hatching. I worked on the Yale University Art Gallery drawings for Paul Rudolph. Kahn was an extraordinary architect; the diagrid ceiling comes from Buckminster Fuller. The influences were powerful. The diverse personalities: Rudolph was about action—if you didn't have a drawing or model, no conversation. Chermayeff was about conversation, talking, challenging, listening. Vincent Scully brought history alive. Those three influences are still powerful today.
I'm curious before we go further—and I remind students that the action part still matters—did you and your colleagues feel torn between these three potential loyalties: action, intellectual approach, and history?
For myself, they were all complimentary, never conflicting. There was an extraordinary level of competition. Rudolph would call a 24-hour project, and the whole school participated. The work ethic was commendable and constant. That competitive element was unusual and would be difficult to create today.
I'd like to believe that for colleagues who had the privilege of that course, that would ring true. There was never a conflict. The competition was intense. Rudolph's snap projects and the 24-hour design charettes were extreme. The work ethic remains.
I think we encourage healthy competition along with a little bit of sleep.
Time to time and a little bit of personal hygiene. Yale was famous for having the first graduate program at Yale, the first to have women. The School of Art started teaching design, then architecture. Were there overlap and exchange between architecture and art students?
I don't remember an overlap. We were aware of the heritage, but the course was all-consuming. We did organize trips to Penn to engage with Louis Kahn and visited Frank Lloyd Wright. That speaks to collaboration and getting input from outsiders. At the Hearst Building, the integration of art is part of the building's ecology. The artist Jamie Carpenter's waterfall is an environmental system. People's behavior changed; they dressed up and gathered in the social heart.
He said it changed their lifestyle.
Having seen that building many times, the space at the top of the escalator is devoted to art gallery space. People expected to see something new. They changed the show regularly. It was the inspiration of the space and the art.
That gathering space, with the restaurant, meeting place, galleries, and work from Yale students, is the social heart of the enterprise.
