Reconstructing the Fosters technological house in Hampstead

Abstract

Between 1978 and 1979 Norman and Wendy Foster design their own home in the exclusive neighbourhood of Hampstead. The interest of this small unfinished project transcends its own architectural merits, as it constitutes a valuable testimonial document to analyze the recurrent influences and obsessions of its architects; furthermore, it has the ability to open new lines of exploration which will find application in subsequent works of the practice. This experimental project constitutes a unique attempt to apply the architectural ideas behind the first Foster Associates’ industrial buildings onto the domestic domain. An architecture which Reyner Banham referred to as “the wellserviced shed”. Saddled between the formal contention of the Sainsbury Centre and the technological expressionism of the Renault Distribution Centre in Swindon and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, the evolution of the project through its different versions reflects a transition from the intended efficiency of the “well-serviced shed” towards the technological expressionism of the so-called High-Tech movement.