"Control is the wrong word. The practice is very much about sharing, and, in any creative practice, some individuals, whether partners or directors, are much closer to certain projects than I could ever be"
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“Control is the wrong word” is Norman Foster rejecting the auteur fantasy that still clings to star architecture: the lone genius bending a skyline to his will. Coming from an architect whose name sits on airports and corporate HQs like a brand mark, the line lands as both humility and strategy. It reframes authorship not as dominance but as choreography.
The key move is linguistic: he swaps a managerial verb (control) for a social one (sharing). That’s not just nicer semantics. It’s a defense against a real structural problem in architecture: the work is too big, too technical, too regulated, too litigated to be “controlled” by any one person. A building is a coalition of engineers, clients, planners, fabricators, budgets, and politics, with design serving as the negotiator. Foster’s phrasing quietly acknowledges that reality without surrendering prestige; he’s not saying there’s no vision, he’s saying vision is distributed.
The subtext sharpens in “much closer to certain projects than I could ever be.” That “ever” is doing a lot. It admits distance created by scale, by running a global practice, by being Norman Foster the institution. It also protects the office: credit flows downward, but accountability stays credible at the top. In an era when “starchitect” can read as ego, this is reputational insulation and a modern leadership ethos: less command-and-control, more networked authorship.
The key move is linguistic: he swaps a managerial verb (control) for a social one (sharing). That’s not just nicer semantics. It’s a defense against a real structural problem in architecture: the work is too big, too technical, too regulated, too litigated to be “controlled” by any one person. A building is a coalition of engineers, clients, planners, fabricators, budgets, and politics, with design serving as the negotiator. Foster’s phrasing quietly acknowledges that reality without surrendering prestige; he’s not saying there’s no vision, he’s saying vision is distributed.
The subtext sharpens in “much closer to certain projects than I could ever be.” That “ever” is doing a lot. It admits distance created by scale, by running a global practice, by being Norman Foster the institution. It also protects the office: credit flows downward, but accountability stays credible at the top. In an era when “starchitect” can read as ego, this is reputational insulation and a modern leadership ethos: less command-and-control, more networked authorship.
Quote Details
| Topic | Team Building |
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