Norman Foster created London's Gherkin, rebuilt the Reichstag in Berlin and redesigned the much cherished New York Public Library. He is building a car-less, solar-powered, carbon-free city in the desert of Abu Dhabi, and he has created the world’s largest building – Beijing Airport – in a fraction of the time it took to build Heathrow’s terminal 5.

Lord Foster tells Razia Iqbal, and an audience at the Royal Institute of British Architects, what the industrialised democracies can learn from the adventurous spirit of the developing world.

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