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Norman Foster on the Country Life podcast: ‘The Green Belt is one of our greatest inventions’

Toby Keel Toby Keel

Lord Norman Foster, one of Britain's great architects, joins the Country Life podcast.

Norman Foster is unarguably one of the greatest architects of the last half century. We’re delighted that he joins Country Life magazine for a very special episode of the podcast.

Speaking to Country Life’s Carla Passino, Lord Foster describes how he left school in Manchester at 16 before eventually working his way through university in order to forge a career as an architect, a role in which he has reshaped countless cities — not least London.

He shares his view on what makes London the city that it is, how it is a city that ‘is essentially organic’, and how its informality, copious green spaces and thriving neighbourhoods model can help popularise the concept of the 15-minute city across the world, and what he has to say to those who criticise how he, and his imitators, have reshaped the skyline of the British capital.

The architect also talks about his other key passion in life: flying. The 89-year-old has flown 75 different types of aircraft, including helicopters and jets.

Lord Foster also talks about the work of the Norman Foster Foundation, which officially opened in Madrid on January 22nd, and how he is trying to help tomorrow’s architects to plan and create cities which are as sustainable as they are vibrant and liveable.

You can listen to the episode on this page, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode Credits

  • Host: James Fisher
  • Interviewer: Carla Passino:
  • Guest: Lord Foster
  • Editor/Producer: Toby Keel
  • Music: JuliusH
  • Special thanks: Adam Wilbourn

My week surviving on an uninhabited Scottish island

Patrick Galbraith joins the Country Life podcast to talk about his week living on the uninhabited island of Scarba, off