Sustainability Factor of Norman Foster Architecture - Dissertation Example

The world of architecture is concerned with the planning and designing of buildings and other physical structures. The art of architecture reflects the culture of the society thus enabling historians to study ancient civilizations from the surviving architectural structures. The art of architecture extends from urban and town planning to the designing of furniture. Although the primary purpose of architecture is to provide physical structures for shelter, temples, educational institutions, commercial institutions, it also portrays the characteristics of a particular era.

The development of architecture depends on human needs of shelter and security and the availability of required materials and skills. The science of architecture has undergone a vast change from the renaissance to postmodern time in terms of designs, materials and ideas, and sustainability which can be defined as “actions and decisions (made) today do not inhibit the opportunities of future generations….our efforts work with our Earth’s ecological systems rather than in opposition to them” is becoming an intrinsic feature of modern-day architecture (Sustainability and the Impacts of Building, n.d.).

Every action undertaken by human beings can affect the environment and as such, the challenge of sustainability is a complex matter. The challenge lies in the availability of resources, making optimum use of them to get maximum benefit, and ensuring minimum if at all, wastage of the resources. It is the responsibility of architects to keep in mind the “complex ecological systems” before giving shape to their plans and designs. The challenge of sustainable architecture is to improve its performance in relation to the environment within the inevitable restrictions of building codes and budgets.

Norman Foster is a British architect born on June 1, 1935. His inspiration to become an architect came from his interest in design and engineering. He is best known for his designs and constructions of “towering office buildings and dramatic steel and glass structures”. Along with other famous architects, he is a member of a group named Renewable Energies in Architecture and Design. Foster belongs to that school of sustainable architecture that believes in using modern technology to solve environmental problems (Gauzin-Muller & Favet, 2002: 16-17).

He believes that to bring a balance to the environment it is necessary to use more and more renewable sources for construction purposes. Keeping this in view he has brought a revolutionary change in the world of designing and construction and also in the global transport sector by introducing the concept of green architecture. Before the industrial revolution, there has been an evolution over centuries in the construction of buildings. Vernacular traditions were used to make the buildings suitable to adjust to the place and climate of the region.

Materials that were available in the local market were used along with local workers and prevalent technologies. But these vernacular traditions “eroded during the Steam Age were finally discarded in the Age of Oil”. (Foster, 2011) In the modern world of the twenty-first century, a building in a warm country like Dubai can have similar facilities and comfort like a building in London with the help of technologies like the air conditioner (Foster, 2011).