"At this stage, artificial intelligence is capable of fooling, inventing (...) But we are first and foremost social animals, that's why we live in cities, and even if we are enthusiastic about the digital world, we cannot zoom in on this experience," he explains, sitting in an armchair in front of the huge bay window on which several models of his famous towers stand out.
"We live in a physical world: we inhabit buildings, streets, squares. All this is energy, and this physical experience, AI cannot replicate," he adds.
Airports, transport networks, towers, urban developments, company headquarters, public buildings, bridges... hundreds of sketchbooks, drawings, photos taken by himself during 60 years of architectural practice, as well as models of 130 of his projects, are gathered from Wednesday on more than 2,000 m2 in the large gallery of the Museum of Modern Art of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
They resonate with works by Fernand Léger, Constantin Brancusi, Umberto Boccioni and Ai Wei Wei, as well as industrial achievements, a glider and automobiles, presented in a thematic journey in seven sections.
"Technology and nature"
The Millau Viaduct in France, the ellipsoid-shaped Tower of London (30 St Mary Axe), the great courtyard of the British Museum, the Reichstag in Berlin or the Hearst Tower in New York are some of his most famous projects.
Often presented as the main representative of "high-tech" architecture with Richard Rogers, Norman Foster prefers to speak of his vision "of an architecture where technology and nature are inseparable" and whose structure (foundations, facades, walls ...) disappears in favor of an airy, vegetated and very bright habitat.
The Millau viaduct, August 25, 2021 in Aveyron © Fred SCHEIBER / AFP / Archives
"He conceives architecture almost as an organism that balances itself with the air, the sun, life, and that builds an environment for men, with respect for the living and its living conditions," says Frédéric Migayrou, curator of the exhibition.
The octogenarian architect, "more inspired by the future than in the past", imagines the cities of the future "cleaner, greener, healthier, quieter, safer and more fun", in an "optimistic", even "ideal" vision.
"Nuclear"
Today, he notes, "the most popular cities, where we want to live, correspond to an essentially European model born before the car boom".
He cited "the transformation of modes of transport", "shared mobility and housing", "younger generations who are no longer as interested in ownership", "more sustainable cities that consume less energy", with "varied activities" and where "people can live close to their workplace".
The ellipsoid-shaped Tower of London (30 St Mary Axe), March 2, 2017 © Daniel SORABJI / AFP/Archives
"These trends, accelerated by the Covid crisis, are obvious," he notes.
To adapt to climate change, the architect relies on "clean energy in abundance", to which "only nuclear can respond". "It's a question of design but also of priority. We must opt for this clean energy by going beyond conventional wisdom, based on facts, not emotion," he said.
Norman Foster was awarded the Pritzker Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in architecture, in 1999.
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