The tributes to architect Richard Rogers, who died this weekend aged 88, have been led by fellow Pritzker Structure Prize-winner Norman Foster.
Foster, who first met Rogers once they have been each college students, described the architect as a “kindred spirit”.
“Richard Rogers was an incredible pioneering architect of the trendy age, socially dedicated and an influential protagonist for one of the best of metropolis life – such a legacy,” mentioned Foster.
“I’m so deeply saddened by the lack of my oldest and closest pal.”
Rogers was one of many world’s most famed architects. In a seven decade-long profession he was recognised with the Pritzker Structure Prize, Royal Gold Medal and American Institute of Architect’s Gold Medal.
He handed away at his house on Saturday night time.
Foster and Rogers had a “distinctive mix of friendship and collaboration”
Foster and Rogers met whereas learning at Yale College and went on to set up a studio collectively once they returned to the UK. The pair would lead the event of high-tech structure and change into two of the world’s main architects.
“Over the time since we met, virtually precisely 60 years in the past as college students at Yale College, Richard has been a kindred spirit,” mentioned Foster.
“Our rapport on all the things architectural amounted to a privately shared language that might embody criticism and appreciation,” he continued.
“With the briefest of breaks, we continued our distinctive mix of friendship and collaboration into non-public follow with two architect sisters as Group 4, earlier than finally going our personal methods as separate practices in 1967.”
We turned “nearer than ever as households”
Working collectively at Group 4, together with Su Brumwell and Wendy Cheesman, the pair set the usual for high-tech structure. After the studio cut up Foster and Rogers arrange their very own studios, which might go on to change into probably the most influential in UK structure for many years.
“We’ve got come full circle to be nearer than ever as households,” mentioned Foster.
“Richard was gregarious, outgoing, beneficiant and possessed an infectious zest for all times,” he mentioned. “His buildings are a social mirror of that character – open, welcoming and, like his wardrobe, elegantly vibrant.”
Foster additionally paid tribute to Rogers’ architectural legacy, which incorporates the Centre Pompidou and Lloyd’s constructing in London.
“The Rogers signature is an structure that makes manifest and celebrates the position of the construction,” mentioned Foster.
“Expertise involves thoughts in my reference to his structure, however it’s all the time as a way to the social agenda. Given Richard’s ardour for the neighborhood spirit of a constructing, it’s maybe no shock that he was a lover of cities and championed their trigger as a dedicated urbanist,” he mentioned.
“Whether or not as an advisor to mayors and authorities, or as a author on the topic, he was a tireless supporter of the compact, sustainable, pedestrian-friendly metropolis and a passionate opponent of senseless suburban sprawl.”