Cristina Iglesias

In this episode of the ‘Building the Future’ series, acclaimed Spanish artist and sculptor, Cristina Iglesias, shares her initial responses to Norman Foster’s work around the world, before she met the man himself during their collaboration on Bloomberg’s European Headquarters in London. Iglesias considers the close relationship between art and architecture with reference to her site-specific The Ionosphere (A Place of Silent Storms); an intricate canopy for the Norman Foster Foundation, Madrid.

Forgotten Streams (2017) for Bloomberg’s European Headquarters in London looked to break the boundaries imposed by security measures. Responding to this challenge of enclosure, the artwork defined a space for encounter and gathering, as well as a place of contemplation.

Also created in 2017, Iglesias’s The Ionosphere (A Place of Silent Storms), specially commissioned for the Norman Foster Foundation, Madrid, was conceived as an exterior space providing necessary shade for the adjacent Pavilion. Formed of overlapping panels, comparable to organic strata and construction layers, the canopy gives visual expression to the Foundation’s educational goals.

Whilst highlighting the enduring relationship between art and architecture, Iglesias acknowledges there is difficulty in defining precisely what connects these two fields. Through its ability to address functionality and appeal to the spiritual, architecture meets art in a collaboration around space.