Norman Foster: 'Manchester town hall and my local library were the buildings that shaped me'

The architect, who left school at 16, on breaking into the business by drawing through the nightWinston Churchill said: “We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us.” The first building that shaped my future was Manchester town hall, where I started work at the age of 16. The Victorian-Gothic architecture was magnificent – it impressed me then and still moves my spirits today. I spent most lunch breaks wandering around buildings in the city, drawn to them for the aesthetic