The Czech architect Jan Kaplický, known for two of the UK's most unusual buildings, died on 14 January, 2009, aged 71.

He was responsible for the futuristic media centre that looms above Lord's Cricket Ground's Nursery End, in London, which opened in 1999.

And in 2003, the cityscape of Birmingham was brought into a new era with the opening of the Selfridges Building at the famous Bull Ring.

He once said, "Where is it written that buildings have to be boxes? People aren't boxes."

Jan Kaplický was born on 18 April, 1937, in Prague. As a child he was fascinated by technology and the new styles in architecture and he studied the art before opening a practice in the mid 1960s

When the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, he fled to London where he found work with several prestigious firms. In 1979 he founded his own company, Future Systems.

Many of his projects in London won industry awards, including the glass and aluminium Hauer-King House in Canonbury (1994) and the West India Quay Bridge in Docklands (1996).

The Royal Institute of British Architects honoured him withits 'Awards for Technical Excellence' for the Lord's media centre and the 'Award for Architecture' for the Selfridges Building.

Former Architecture Review editor Paul Finch, called Mr Kaplickýan "architect of immense integrity, somebody who wouldn't back down and would fight almost to the death to see a project through.

"He had a very gifted creative combination of ideas and drawing ability. He brought to British architecture a kind of imaginative modernism which stemmed form the brilliant Czech modernist tradition."