Craft + Manufacture was an exhibition of industrial design by Foster + Partners. The gallery space hosted an array of furniture, fittings, products and lighting developed over the years by the practice, illustrating its integrated approach to design across many diverse projects.

 

The exhibition included models, prototypes, photographs and finished products that explain the team’s history and philosophy: starting with a draughting table from 1981 that spurred the beginnings of a dedicated industrial design team at Foster + Partners, through to bespoke fittings designed for the Maggies’ Centre Manchester (opened April 2016).

 

Foster + Partners say: “The collaborative nature of the design team pioneered by Norman Foster has always included engineers, environmental experts, graphic designers, industrial designers and model-makers, as well as architects.  An integrated team delivers design solutions which treat the built environment in which we live and work in a holistic way; everything we see and touch is designed, and this was seen as a seamless activity.  This philosophy of integrated design is as important to the practice now as it was in its birth in the 1960s.”