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Bloomberg by Foster

Curves and Triangles

31/12/2017


Bloomberg’s London headquarters, designed by Norman Foster, is the world’s most expensive office building. One can tell from its volume, which by far exceeds that of any of its neighbors in the fragmented and highly dense fabric of the heart of the City, and also from its materials, especially in the sculptural bronze pieces that make up the facade and in the monumental, also bronze stairs that fly through the main atrium. But the new Bloomberg headquarters is more than the world’s most expensive office building. It is perhaps the best recent proof that Foster deserves the trust of leading international firms, even those without the glamour of Apple. The Brit is not only brilliant in addressing programs and giving his works that recognizable mark of a ‘technological’ or ‘sustainable’ architect. He has a great capacity to work with the urban environment; insofar as its enormous volume allows, the building breaks up to adapt to the preexisting triangular scheme. And he has an inborn sensitivity when it comes to giving buildings the character and decorum appropriate for them. In this case, character and decorum again come from the choice of materials, which give the Bloomberg HQ its corporate presence and civic refinement, and especially from the intelligent subversion of the Victorian context into which the building has been inserted, like the newest layer of a palimpsest.


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