HOW MUCH DOES YOUR BUILDING WEIGH?

There are questions that seek information. Then there are questions that quietly change the course of a life. One such question was asked in 1978. Buckminster Fuller, the visionary inventor, engineer and thinker, was visiting Norman Foster's newly completed Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia. Rather than commenting on its appearance, its scale or its cost, Fuller asked a question so unexpected that Foster had no answer. “How much does your building weigh?” It sounds almost humorous. Yet it wasn't. What began as a simple question became the catalyst for a completely new way of thinking. Foster calculated the answer and, in doing so, began reimagining structure, materials and efficiency. His buildings became lighter, more intelligent and more expressive, helping to define the High Tech movement.

I have always admired people whose curiosity outweighs their certainty. Perhaps that is why Norman Foster has always fascinated me. On my most recent visit to England I stood beneath Foster's Great Court at the British Museum. The feeling was strangely familiar. It was the same sense of wonder I have experienced beneath St Paul's Cathedral and beneath the soaring shells of the Sydney Opera House. Different centuries. Different materials. Different technologies. The same human instinct. Curiosity. Looking up. Books taught me to ask questions. Buildings encouraged me to keep asking them. Perhaps that is why I have never stopped looking up.

A Closing Thought

Perhaps the greatest buildings are not created by the people with all the answers. Perhaps they are created by the people courageous enough to keep asking better questions.

Beyond the Drawing Board Reflections from Groth & Sons