Olympic Velodrome architect Sir Michael Hopkins dies aged 88
Sir Michael Hopkins, the architect behind the London Olympic Velodrome, Portcullis House in Westminster, and the Mound Stand at Lord’s Cricket Ground, has died at the age of 88.
His wife, Patty Hopkins, with whom he founded Hopkins Architects, said he had died peacefully “surrounded by his family”.
Born in Poole in 1935, Hopkins went on to study architecture at the Bournemouth School of Art before enrolling in the Architectural Association in London.
Hopkins Architects challenged traditional techniques through the use of lightweight steel and glass structures which paved the way for more permanent lightweight fabric materials to be used in British architecture.
In 1989, Hopkins was recognised with a CBE and then a knighthood in 1995 for services to architecture. He was then awarded the AJ100 Contribution to the Profession award in 2011.
He was elected as a Royal Academician in 1992 before being awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal alongside his wife two years later.
Hopkins fathered three children, all of whom followed him into creative and design-based passions. He also went on to have 11 grandchildren.
The principals at Hopkins Architects said: “Michael will be sadly missed by all of us who were lucky enough to have worked with him. He was consistently rigorous in his thinking, brilliant in his analysis and fearlessly creative in his designing. To have worked with him on so many projects was an education like no other and an absolute privilege.”