Norman Foster has paid a personal and highly complimentary tribute to Stirling Prize-winner Will Alsop, who died at the weekend after a short illness.

Foster said Alsop was a “truly unique individual” who “always sought to break free from the norm” and whose larger-than-life personality was reflected in the “exuberant and inimitable style of his buildings”.

More than a decade his senior, Foster said Alsop’s skills as a gifted designer had shone through at an early stage, when he had been shortlisted as runner up in the competition to design the Centre Pompidou in Paris as an Architectural Association student.