Architect Ken Shuttleworth was born to design beautiful buildings

If a Mr Keith Doney had had his way, the architectural world would have missed out on one of its most talented names. Although Ken Shuttleworth, 61, wanted to be an architect from an early age, his careers adviser, the aforementioned Doney, told him he did not have the right academic background and tried to put him off. Fortunately, Shuttleworth persisted.

"I just knew I wanted to be an architect," he says. "Even as young as five, I was always making things, drawing and playing with Meccano, and I was very influenced by design going on around me. I grew up in Birmingham in the 1950s and '60s. The city had been heavily bombed in World War II and a lot of new concrete buildings were being built, which, as a kid, I thought were fantastic. Also, my dad bought a Mini in 1959 - one of the first off the production line. It was a real revolution in car design - people used to stop in the street to look when it drove by - and it showed me the power of design."

Shuttleworth studied at the City of Leicester School of Architecture, where he was nicknamed "Ken the Pen" because of his speed and talent for sketching. (Although he believes that the biggest impact on his profession has been computer usage, he says he still thinks through drawing and explores through sketching - albeit sometimes on the iPad.) After graduating, he went to London, where he met Norman Foster and worked on some of the world's most famous buildings, including the HSBC building in Central and Chek Lap Kok airport.

"Both buildings have stood the test of time," says Shuttleworth. "Chek Lap Kok looks the same as the day we left it! The bank, which is now 30 years old, is still a very strong building but it has been dwarfed by the height of other buildings around it. Back then, we had a height restriction of 180 metres because of Kai Tak airport.

"Working with Norman was great - we did some fantastic projects all over the world. I had 30 years with him. I'd spent more time with Norman than I had with my mum and dad."

Like all good things, his collaboration with Foster came to an end and Shuttleworth left in 2004 to set up Make, a wholly employee-owned company with offices in London, Hong Kong and Beijing. Fast forward 10 years, and the practice has 1,053 projects and a raft of awards under its belt. Among Make's best-known works are The Copper Box, the handball arena, made from recycled copper and constructed for the London 2012 Olympic Games; the Cube in Birmingham, a striking, mixed-use development; the St Paul's Information Centre, a kiosk next to St Paul's Cathedral in London, which Shuttleworth says has won Make its most awards; and prefab kiosks in Canary Wharf, which shut like pram hoods for security.

The practice's most recent projects in China include the residential development Dunbar Place in Ho Man Tin, which is Make's first building in Hong Kong; the façade for the Wanda Reign Hotel in Wuhan; and the soon-to-be-completed Temple House in Chengdu, which integrates a restored Qing dynasty courtyard building into its design.