Norman Foster, portrayed at the Berlinale

Directors Norberto López-Amado and Carlos Carcas will present a documentary in Berlin about the life and work of the architect. Norman Foster will attend the premiere as the festival's guest of honor and will participate in a debate on the future of cinema as an urban space.

Artists such as Bono (U2), Anish Kapoor, Richard Serra and Cai Guo Quiang draw the human and artistic portrait of the architect Norman Foster through How much does your building weigh, Mr. Foster? The film, selected by the 60th Berlin International Film Festival, will have its world premiere next Saturday, February 13, in the 'Berlinale Special' section.

The Spanish Norberto López Amado (They look at us) and the North American Carlos Carcas (Old man Bebo) direct this documentary produced by Elena Ochoa (Art Commisisioners) in association with Aiete
Ariane Films (production company led by Imanol Uribe and Andrés Santana). An ambitious project with international projection, co-produced between the United Kingdom and Spain and filmed in more than ten countries over two years.

How much does your building weigh, Mr. Foster? tells the life story of one of the most emblematic architects of the 21st century and his unwavering passion for improving the quality of life through design. The film captures Foster's humble origins and how his dreams and influences inspired the creation of projects such as the Swiss Re tower in London, the Reichstag, the Hearst building in New York and works such as the airport and the largest bridge on the planet (Beijing and Millau) among others, along with his most innovative project: Masdar City (Abu Dhabi), a bold sustainability experiment with which Foster and his team seek to respond to the complex and unsustainable immediate future of cities and which is called to change the concept of urban planning.

The documentary, written and narrated by Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum in London and one of the world's most prestigious architectural writers and critics, portrays some of the most extraordinary structures of our time. Architecture comes to life. The buildings are filmed from a cinematic point of view showing the spectacular nature of their size and scale on the big screen. With an important aesthetic and documentary value, the film is aimed not only at professionals and design lovers but at anyone who has ever been moved by a work of art.

The project arises from an idea by the executive producer, Antonio Sanz. His multifaceted career in the art world (photographer, film director and scriptwriter and curator of prestigious exhibitions
international) and his close collaboration with Elena Ochoa's publishing house Ivorypress, led him to propose the project to it: “publish a book with moving images, a large exhibition
cinematographic about the work of one of the greatest contemporary architects.”

In recent years, Art Commissioners, the firm created by editor Elena Ochoa for the production and curation of art exhibitions, has carried out international commissions from contemporary artists such as Richard Long, Anish Kapoor, Sol Lewitt and Cai Guo-Qiang, among others.

A meticulous production

How much does your building weigh, Mr Foster? "It is the first feature film focused on the figure of the architect Norman Foster and constitutes the beginning of a series of productions about the key figures of art and culture of the 21st century," says Elena Ochoa. For its directors, the film has involved work of more than two years, "a slow, rigorous and demanding creation process, to reach the conclusion that less is more, as she told Norman Buckminster Fuller (one of her mentors) and that has been the metaphor of this project," according to Norberto López. Amado. “We wanted to film the architecture like no one else has done, understanding the building and then explaining it without words, caressing each part of it with the necessary care and detail to make the viewer feel and understand it,” say the directors.