Richard Rogers, British architect behind Pompidou Centre, dies aged 88: reports

British architect Richard Rogers, known for designing some of the world’s most famous buildings including Paris’ Pompidou Centre, has died aged 88, according to media reports.

Rogers, who changed the London skyline with distinctive creations such as the Millennium Dome and the ‘Cheesegrater’, “passed away quietly” Saturday night, Freud communications agency’s Matthew Freud told the Press Association.

The Italian-born architect won a series of awards for his designs, including the 2007 Pritzker Prize, and is one of the pioneers of the “high-tech” architecture movement, distinguished by structures incorporating industrial materials such as glass and steel.

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Rogers’ other well-known designs include Strasbourg’s European Court of Human Rights and the Three World Trade Centre in New York, as well as international airport terminals in Madrid and London’s Heathrow.

He left school in 1951 with no qualifications but managed to gain entry into London’s Architectural Association School, known for its modernism.

Although buildings were Rogers’ world, he insisted it was the space around them that was key in defining those that worked.

“The Twin Towers in New York, for instance. They weren’t great buildings, but the space between them was.”

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