Explore reading: Foster and Partners Look at the photo and talk about the questions. 1 What can you see in the picture? 2 Would you like to work in a place like this? 3 What do you think are the good and bad points about working in a big office? Read the article about Sir Norman Foster below. Parts of the text have been removed. Choose the correct part (A–I) for each gap (1–6). There are two extra parts that you should not use. Write your answers in the spaces provided. The first one (0) has been done for you. A the administrative building and leisure centre to become an office clerk C people’s free time activities D to bring back a sense of togetherness E as it gets warmer and rises F for the firm’s 1,200 employees G as much as the workers want H design and architecture I all 3,500 people working in it 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 B HSBC Building, Hong Kong 30 31 Foster and Partners – a global studio for sustainable architecture Foster and Partners is an award-winning team of architects that was founded by Norman Foster in 1967. Since then, he and his team have established an international practice with a worldwide reputation. With offices across the globe, they work as a single studio that is both ethnically and culturally diverse. Norman Foster, the man who started it all, was born in Manchester in 1935. His hard-working parents wanted him (0) , but Foster found office work boring. What he was interested in was (1) – not a very likely career for a working-class child. However, after doing an internship at an architect’s studio, he won a scholarship to study at the University of Manchester, and later Yale, USA. In order to finance his studies, he took on all kinds of part-time jobs. As a teenager, he sold ice cream, worked night shifts in a local bakery and, when he was a bit older, he even worked as a nightclub bouncer. After some time in the United States, Foster returned to the UK and founded a company. Originally specialising in industrial buildings, Foster and his team of architects quickly became famous for designing office buildings. In 1969, they built (2) for a cruise line company in the London Docklands. In this building, workers and managers no longer worked apart, but side by side. This was a revolutionary idea at the time. However, the company’s breakthrough in the UK was an insurance building in Ipswich. The brief from the family who owned the company was (3) to the workplace. Again the architect proved innovative by designing an open-plan office, long before open-plan became fashionable. As Ipswich was a town with few leisure facilities, the insurance building’s roof gardens, the huge swimming pool and gym really increased the quality of life (4) . Another well-known work by Foster and Partners is the headquarters of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in Hong Kong. The building is famous for the amount of light it lets through and the fact that (5) have fantastic views of either Victoria Peak, Hong Kong Bay, or the Chinese mainland. One building every London visitor should see is Foster’s 30 St Mary Axe, which Londoners affectionately call ‘The Gherkin’ because of its shape. For this building, Foster worked together with engineers to exploit green, sustainable energy ideas. The complex facade, for example, lets in air for cooling and discharges it (6) . As for the company culture, employing young talented people is considered to be extremely important. This is why the average age of people who work for Foster and Partners is 32, the same it was when the company was set up. B 117 Language skills Extras Explore 9 People and places Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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