This year's laureate, announced this week, is another Brit: England's Sir Norman Foster, 63.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia

Mr Ai says officials dismissed suggestions that Beijing airport's new terminal, designed by Sir Norman Foster and opened for the games, should be adorned with modern art.

ECONOMIST: Art for the Olympics

But after Sir Norman Foster, the scheme's architect, had outlined the advantages of a promenade through the heart of London, the politicians, led by the deputy prime minister, John Prescott, gave it their enthusiastic backing.

ECONOMIST: Battle of Trafalgar

Architect Sir Norman Foster elegantly combined a refurbished British-era military structure surrounded by manicured green lawns with curved, metal-clad modern hotel buildings and villas that tumble down a hillside to the South China Sea.

BBC: Business trip: Singapore