Norman Foster, architect: “The crisis forces you to do more with less. Some of the best projects arise from the greatest difficulties”
The architecture professional challenges the common belief: he believes that the less you have, the greater the chances of doing a better job.
Architecture is both an art and a technical discipline, grounded in the ability to plan, design, and build the environments people inhabit. It combines aesthetics, functionality, and a range of scientific methods.
That said, there is one specific factor that plays a fundamental role in shaping architecture and the possibilities it offers to society: economics, or more precisely, the financial resources available to professionals in the field.
As in many areas of life, the amount of resources at hand is crucial for understanding what is possible and, if things do not go as initially planned, for turning to a backup plan without significantly altering the original concept. Architecture is no exception. It is an art form in which, as a general rule, stronger financial backing makes it easier to carry out better projects.
🎉Celebrating the 90th birthday of Norman Robert Foster, one of the most influential architects of our time!
— ParametricArchitecture (@parametricarch) June 1, 2025
From the high-tech legacy of the HSBC Main Building and the Apple Park campus to the iconic Millennium Bridge and Hearst Tower, Foster’s work continues to shape skylines… pic.twitter.com/RW7yf74V2O
“A crisis forces you to do more with less”
However, not everyone agrees with this idea. This is precisely the position of Norman Foster, a British architect who maintains that the greater the challenges, the greater the opportunity to create a stronger project.
“A crisis forces you to do more with less. Some of the best projects emerge from the greatest difficulties,” he says. At 90 years old, Norman Foster challenges conventional wisdom. The less one has, or the bigger the obstacles, the greater the chances that a project will truly stand out.
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