Farshid Moussavi

For the sixteenth episode of our ‘Building the Future’ series, British Architect Farshid Moussavi, founder of Farshid Moussavi Architecture, narrates how she came to encounter Norman Foster through his work and his renown as the studio had just completed the Renault Factory.

Foster and his studio redefined architecture through airport projects, tall office buildings, and even furniture. Farshid Moussavi witnessed the thinking-process behind this redefinition of the future and of the city. She believes the resilience of building and ‘architectural slowness’ to be the special quality defining architecture, with buildings lasting through time instead of falling out.

Farshid Moussavi understands the use and aesthetics of architecture as equally important together and defining our relationship to buildings. 30 St Mary’s Axe being the example of that association between the aesthetic and its organization, doing everything and doing it artfully, and architecturally. Moussavi finds architecture and 30 St Mary’s Axe inspiring through their relevance and physicality.

Farshid Moussavi details how she most commonly finds herself to be the only woman in the room with this distinctiveness affecting the way she would relate or be related to. Grateful for the clients and projects that have decided to give the 1% a chance, Moussavi recognizes her luck in her practice of architecture as she has built connections and earned her place. She however recognizes the toughness of the field when met by a young, recent graduate woman aspiring to pursue the career of architect.