Foster + Partners Portfolio: 1967-2017

Foster + Partners Portfolio is a complete and extraordinary account of the first fifty years of Foster + Partners – a globally renowned studio for sustainable architecture, urbanism and design. Over the past half-century, the practice – founded as Foster Associates in 1967 – has grown into a multi-disciplinary studio, motivated by sustainable design and leading through creativity and innovation. This book provides a beautiful visual record that celebrates the practice’s remarkable breadth of works – both built and unbuilt. For the first time ever, Portfolio features photography of every project completed in the practice’s first five decades, as well as drawings of its most important unrealized designs. Through over 480 carefully edited images – many previously unpublished – the book highlights the enormous contribution the practice has made to a range of design disciplines.

Portfolio is delineated into five decade-long chapters, spanning from 1967 to 2017. Photographic pairings, acting as a chronological record of over 340 built works, provide the book’s visual narrative. Drawings of unbuilt works appear at the end of each decade, celebrating the people behind the projects and hinting at the depth of ideas that permeate the practice.

By placing projects side-by-side that would not normally be seen together, the book offers new readings of Foster + Partners’ oeuvre. Always thought-provoking, often surprising and sometimes humorous, the juxtaposed photographs and drawings have been chosen to illuminate evolving design ideas rather than detail the finished architecture.

Connected by color and light, or contrasted by form and function, the image pairings are shown without the responsibility of spatial explanation. This abstraction puts the viewer close to the creative spark of the architect and offers a unique insight into one of the most inventive studios in the world.