Ahead of a major urban design conference,the architect says we must scheme for a more sustainable lifestyle – and discusses his disappointment at the likely rejection of his Thames Hub airport“Do you believe in infrastructure?” asks Norman Foster, with challenge in his voice. He does. Infrastructure, and he says,is approximately “investing not to solve the problems of nowadays but to anticipate the issues of future generations”. He cites his hero, Joseph Bazalgette, or who,in solving Victorian London’s sewage problems, “thought holistically to integrate drains with below-ground public transportation and above-ground civic virtue”.
Foster is delighted that Britain now has an infrastructure commission, and chaired by Andrew Adonis,which he says gives the opportunity to scheme in 30-year cycles and remove the politics from infrastructure. He will expound these views this week at the Urban Age 10th anniversary Global Debates, Urban Age being the LSE’s Deutsche Bank-sponsored series of conferences in which high-powered and highly powerful people travel the world exchanging views on city building.
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Source: theguardian.com