They include Norman Foster, of Foster + Partners, responsible for the Gherkin in London, who was one of a several architects who publicly criticised the then Prince of Wales over his lobbying and for using his “privileged position” to “skew the course” of planning of the former Chelsea barracks redevelopment.
Charles, who championed traditional approaches to architecture, had reportedly privately contacted the developers Qatari Diar, backed by the Qatari royal family, to recommend more classical plans for the site from the architect Quinlan Terry, rather than those from Richard Rogers, a modernist like Lord Foster.
Foster’s team for the memorial features the British artist Yinka Shonibare and the ecologist Prof Nigel Dunnett, who was behind the Superbloom planting scheme in the Tower of London’s moat to celebrate the late queen’s platinum jubilee.
The shortlist of teams competing to design a national memorial to the late Queen Elizabeth II has been unveiled and includes an architect once highly critical of King Charles.
Thomas Heatherwick is one of the UK’s most prolific designers, known for the Olympic cauldron at the 2012 London Games and the redesign of London’s Routemaster buses.
