In the year 1979, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank made a double gesture of confidence: in the future of the colony after its devolution to China, building 100.000 square metres of lavish office space in the city; and in Norman Foster, commissioning t

After Willis Faber and the Sainsbury Centre, Foster’s acclaim brought a stream of public and private commissions, most of which failed to materialise. The often trivial graphic expression of these missed chances show the difficulty to evaluate the un