Type his name into any search engine and you鈥檒l come up with some unusual takes on Foster鈥檚 work. Chlo毛 McCulloch finds out what he means to a variety of branding gurus, expats and geeks

When I typed 鈥渂logs鈥� and 鈥淣orman Foster鈥� into Google, I expected to be rewarded with some off-the-wall results 鈥� and I wasn鈥檛 disappointed.

First up is self-styled 鈥渂randing guru鈥� William Arruda鈥檚 blog about the power of personal branding (blog.williamarruda.com). The purpose of the blog is to show how to use 鈥渢he power of personal branding to advance your career or business鈥�, and apparently the architecture of Foster is a case in point. Arruda reckons Foster has a stronger brand than any other living architect as 鈥渧irtually all his buildings become icons鈥�. The 鈥渋con鈥� that comes in for special praise, thereby exhibiting the essence of the Foster brand, is his Hearst Tower in New York.

The same building is the subject of a radical transformation on www.socketsite.com, which likes the Hearst Tower so much it has a 3D animation with said tower transposed onto the Sisco skyline. The Gherkin is also subjected to a 鈥淧hotoshop mashup鈥� in which it is placed atop the San Fransisco Chronicle building (pictured).


Gizmodo.com, a gadget site, has latched onto the technology behind Foster鈥檚 Khan Shatyry Entertainment Centre in Astana, Kazakhstan 鈥� a tent-like structure, it is clad in ETFE which enables it to absorb sunlight to give the effect of summer all year round. According to Adam Frucci this is 鈥渙fficially the coolest architectural project ever鈥�.

Back in Europe, a Mr B is blogging on www.francethisway.com about his expat life in the south of France and his love of Foster鈥檚 Millau viaduct. He is such a fan he says he鈥檒l even 鈥渙verlook the millions of tons of damaging concrete that was used鈥�. Mr B鈥檚 blog has attracted several comments about the bridge and a rather bloodthirsty one from someone who wants to know, 鈥淗as anyone fallen off yet?鈥�