Ken Shuttleworth, the gherkin and egg man

While fans of modern architecture marvel at Norman Foster's new airport for Beijing - photographed on The First Post today - the 'hidden genius' actually responsible for designing many of Lord Foster's most famous buildings over three decades will next week unveil plans for a series of skyscrapers to be built in the rather more prosaic setting of Croydon in south London.

He is Ken Shuttleworth, who for 30 years worked in Foster's shadow, drawing the first concepts for such Foster icons as the London Assembly's 'egg' headquarters, the City of London's landmark 'gherkin', the new Wembley Stadium arch, and - just to prove he's human - the 'wobbly' Millennium bridge.

Shuttleworth, who was known as 'Ken the Pen' at art college "because I drew twice as fast as anyone else", finally left Foster's company in 2003 to go it alone. The £500m development in Cherry Orchard Road, Croydon will be one of his biggest commissions if the plans are accepted.

Unfortunately for Shuttleworth, planning requirements are rather more rigorous in London than in Beijing, where his old boss had an enviably easy time with his gargantuan airport. He said at its unveiling last week that the building had been started and finished in less time than the planning inquiry alone took for his new fifth terminal at Heathrow.