Architect Norman Foster on Why the West Struggles to Build Big
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Thoughts Podcast. I'm Tracey Alloway.
And I'm Joe Wiesenthal.
Joe, you know I spend a lot of my time doing interior design.
Yes.
I've bored you, I'm sure, with a lot of thoughts on this topic. But then it struck me recently that actually what I'm doing is not really interior design. It's actually just interior decorating. Because I'm not really changing the structure of a particular house. I don't like doing that in part because I'm lazy and I hate construction mess, but also because it's a lot harder to change the particular design of a house than it is to just get new fabric for the windows or a new paint color. There are more real world constraints.
Yeah, that's an interesting way to put it. I can confirm having looked over from time to time, you know, we sit next to each other. I can confirm having looked at you say like looking out wallpaper and vintage wallpaper that you might be acquiring. But no, I have not heard of you sort of talk about, you know, knocking down walls or whatever inside your home. Although I certainly, you know, in New York City, you know people who do that and they hire an architect as part of, they'll buy two condos or something like that and conjoin them and hire an architect and so forth. That's a different level. It's a different level of constraints and obligations.
Well, this is the other thing I've been thinking. Am I a product of my time? Because so much of the cultural emphasis nowadays seems to be on interior design and what the inside of a building looks like versus the exterior. And I think if I had been thinking about these things in the 90s or the 80s, I would be much more into architecture.
It's a really interesting thought. And I hadn't really thought of it that way. But that makes a lot of sense. And my, you know, my uninformed gut is like, oh, does social media make it so that people are just much more obsessed with the interior design of a building, the specific aesthetic choices that are made? But of course, on the other hand, you know, we work at Bloomberg. We have a big office in London.
Many beautiful buildings.
Many beautiful buildings, lots of glass, a new London HQ, absolutely gorgeous building, et cetera. And so, you know, we do live surrounded in this world that The world we live in is one that was built by architects or designed by architects.
Absolutely. And this was the other thing I was thinking about architecture in relation to economics is when it's done well, a beautiful building ends up being a public good, right? It can boost an entire neighborhood. It can revive a particular city. It can improve the flow of traffic, improve energy efficiency, do all these things.
Yeah.
But so many buildings are still designed by private developers, and I'm not sure they're always incentivized to do beautiful design in that way. How do you incentivize a private developer to do something that ends up being a public good?
That's a fascinating question. I hadn't really thought of it framed in that way. But for example, again, the new JP Morgan building in New York City, I like it. I don't work there, but I think it's a cool addition to Skyline. It blinks, et cetera. There's a lot of cool things. But how do you design... How do you incentivize a public good as a good way to frame it?
Well, since you mentioned the J.P. Morgan building, that is a big clue.
Purposely dropping breadcrumbs. Yes.
A huge clue. So we do, in fact, have the perfect guest for today's show.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–23:32
2
How do constraints influence architectural design?
23:32–26:21
3
What makes a building successful in the long run?
26:21–46:44
4
Why do some countries excel in mega-projects while others struggle?
46:44–53:12
5
How do budgets impact the architectural process?
53:12–55:02
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Odd Lots
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