City's science landmark

The reason for the buzz at the launch of Science Oxford’s plans to create a £30m cultural centre for science and enterprise last month, was the news that the designer of the new building would be Foster and Partners.

Talk of ‘iconic buildings’ is increasingly common in Oxford, with The Oxford Times seemingly reporting proposals for some new multi-million-pound structure almost weekly.

But the involvement of Norman Foster’s company — responsible for schemes such as the German Reichstag in Berlin, the new Wembley Stadium, the world’s largest airport terminal at Beijing, the Millennium Bridge, the Great Court at the British Museum and the City of London’s ‘Gherkin’ to name but a few — suggests the city can hope for a building worthy of such an important site.

It seems Lord Foster of Thames Bank has been much preoccupied with universities and science of late. Two weeks ago he was at the opening of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, near Abu Dhabi City, the first building of its kind to be powered entirely by renewable solar energy.

This, in fact, is only the first part of a wider scheme to transform Masdar in the United Arab Emirates, into a zero-carbon, zero-waste micro-city in the desert, where students will live and learn in a ‘living laboratory’ environment.

Lord Foster has also become Humanitas visiting professor of architecture at Oxford University, recently delivering an inaugural lecture to a packed audience at The Examination Schools, in High Street.

The Oxford Times caught up with the great architect shortly before the lecture. And there was no disguising his delight that his company has arrived on the Oxford stage.

What will certainly delight green-minded residents of the city is that over 40 years he and his company have been pioneering a sustainable approach to architecture and ecology through a wide range of work, including urban masterplans, airports, civic and cultural buildings.

Unsurprisingly, he sees a “world-class facility“ showcasing cutting edge science from Oxford, which is set to attract 100,000 visitors a year, as a real opportunity to spell out his belief that science and design are bound together.

Lord Foster said: “Whether we are exploring new, greener ways to power our cities or developing the computer technology that helps us to design complex, energy-efficient buildings, we rely on scientific innovation.

“Science affects architecture, and our daily lives, at every level. The enthusiasm for discovering how things work, how they fit together, has been a constant in my work over the years.

“Science Oxford is dedicated to inspiring the public and future generations of innovators — this is an important endeavour. We are delighted to be involved as designers of the new centre.”

As well as being sustainable, his other great passion is to ensure buildings are culturally in their place.

This has certainly been achieved with Foster’s newly-unveiled designs for the Zayed National Museum in Abu Dhabi, with lightweight steel towers, sculpted aerodynamically to work like the feathers of a bird’s wing.

The display spaces are housed within a man-made, landscaped mound. At least at Oxford the mound is already there as an impressive backdrop to a scheme that should bring Oxford’s history, in the form of its castle, and science, side by side.

Foster and Partners said it was too early to say what the new home of Science Oxford would look like, with the city’s new visitor attraction expected to be called The Magnet (in recognition of Sir Martin Wood, founder of Science Oxford whose knowledge of high-field magnets led to the creation of Oxford Instruments).

The Oxford Times was, however, able to disclose it would include a 150-seat, domed theatre, to be known as The Sphere, and a digital planetarium.

Lord Foster, who also becomes a visiting fellow of Brasenose College, left school at 16, joining Manchester City Treasurer’s office, before joining the RAF. The Thames Bank in his title is connected to Reddish, Stockport, where he was born.

After his national service he went to the University of Manchester’s School of Architecture and City Planning.

His environmentally sensitive approach to design was, in part, inspired by his early collaboration with the American Richard Buckminster Fuller, an engineer, inventor, futurist and architect, who was born in 1895.

The quest for sustainability became an obsession for Lord Foster, long before many people even knew what the word meant.

For him it represents a challenge “to preserve and extend the quality of life globally, and to achieve it by doing more with less”.

He used his lecture at Oxford to explore the issue of how the world can accommodate growing populations in cities in a sustainable way.

The academic community in Masdar, he hopes, will help point the way forward. The new city is designed to encourage walking, with shaded streets and courtyards offering a pedestrian environment sheltered from the Arabian sun.

He might regret that he will not see the 2018 World Cup final being staged at Wembley Stadium, but it is a good bet that his company’s services will be sought by the desert state of Qatar.

As for Oxford, the new science centre could be open within three to four years. About £10m has been raised, with the remaining £20 to be raised from private individuals, trusts and foundations.

Ian Griffin, chief executive of Science Oxford, said: “The centre should provide memorable and inspiring science-themed experiences. It will have a suite of flexible spaces housing permanent galleries and a regularly changing programme of exhibitions and events.

“One of them — Dreaming Spires to Screaming Tyres — will detail the history of science in Oxford from the work of Roger Bacon to the present day. It will tell the human stories of Nobel Prize winners, entrepreneurs and industrialists.

“Ours will be a building of the 21st century, that has to hold its own in a city of many great buildings. We have engaged Foster and Partners to create a stunning contemporary building.”

There was hardly any need to add ‘environmentally friendly’.