Lord Foster: From Russia with Love (!)

The UK's relationship with Russia may be frosty but Lord Foster is 
guaranteed a warm welcome at Mipim's equivalent of the Kremlin

Norman Foster loves Russia. He loves it so much, he came to Mipim just 
to talk about it, for the second year running

The spectacle of the world's greatest living architect – as one magazine 
recently pasted on its front page, you may remember – singing the 
praises of the Russian fatherland to a packed roomful of Cossack 
entrepreneurs and architectural groupies was too much for the severely 
under-employed journalists of the Mipim press pack.

cont'd....
http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3108758&origin=bldgdailynews

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The Foster supremacy

As expected, the surreality of Mipim knows no bounds, starting with 
arrival at the top-notch hotel where the lucky ladies and gentlemen of 
the press are billeted. This comprises a set of chalets laid out in a 
landscape garden named after famous artists. I’m in Van Gogh block, the 
furthest away from the reception and wander through ill-lit gardens 
trying to read my badly designed map of the grounds in the almost pitch 
black, while at the same time, carrying my luggage. Among the manicured 
bushes several other men are doing the same. The scene is a cross 
between the film Last Year in Marienbad and a particular section of a 
Hampstead Heath where men of a certain persuasion are known to go in 
order to make each other’s acquaintance.

cont'd....
http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=725&storycode=3108908&featurecode=12195&c=1