| After several decades, sustainable architecture has stepped into a crucial phase. The current sustainable design mainly focuses on technological innovation and installation, whereas neglects cultural expression and contextual connection. By defining the meaning of environment and sustainable architecture, a series discussion is undertaken, including the relationship of culture and nature, their influence on architecture, and architecture's respective reaction. Consequently, the paper comes into a conclusion that sustainable architecture in a real meaning should not exclusively respond to natural environment, but also need to be harmonious with cultural surroundings. By looking at two pragmatic works of Norman Foster, the thesis analyses the design concepts of both cases based on different backgrounds, which leads to a comparison of the manipulations of culture and technology in these two projects. Finally the case studies demonstrate the vitality of cultural elements and the necessity of balancing cultural and technological components in the future development of S.A. |
