Lord Foster explains his quest for sustainability

Policy 30 Nov 10 World-renowned British architect, Professor the Lord Foster of Thames Bank OM, has outlined why sustainability and performance are essential to good design for modern cities. Norman Foster was giving an inaugural lecture as Humanitas Visiting Professor of Architecture at the University of Oxford to a packed audience, presided over by the University Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Hamilton. The lecture, entitled 'Performance', addressed a key question facing societies today: 'How do we accommodate growing populations in cities in a sustainable way?' His vision is already becoming a reality in the master plan he has drawn up for Masdar City, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. In Masdar City, sustainable technologies and the planning principles of traditional Arab settlements have come together to create a zero-carbon, zero-waste community on an urban scale. Only last week, Lord Foster was at the opening of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology campus, the first building of its kind to be powered entirely by renewable solar energy. It will be used as a pilot for the sustainable technologies that will be explored for future Masdar City buildings. The city is designed to encourage walking, with shaded streets and courtyards offering a pedestrian environment, sheltered from climatic extremes.