BC Displays A4 PDF v3

BUILDING CENTRE 1931-2021
1990s
As economic globalisation consolidated—
driven by finance, information
technologies, and the new markets
of post-socialist Eastern Europe and
Russia—architecture in Britain developed
a distinctly glossy sheen. In the last
decade of the century many architects
retreated from the wilder forms and pop
references of postmodernism, and High
Tech quieted to a rational engineering
indistinguishable from modernism.
Stansted Airport
Foster was commissioned to design a new terminal
building at Stansted in 1981. His approach was to
return to essentials—moving passengers with ease
and comfort through a highly legible space from
set-down to plane by placing services beneath the
main concourse and inside the structural ‘trees’.
Stansted Airport, Stansted.
Architect: Foster and Partners; Structural Engineer: Ove Arup and Partners;
General Contractor: Laing Management Contracting Ltd, BAAC; 1991
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