Paris airport architect designed Channel Tunnel terminal

Paul Andreu, who designed the airport terminal that collapsed at Charles de Gaulle airport, is one of France’s most renowned architects and also designed the French terminal of the Channel Tunnel.

He is one of the world’s leading airport design specialists and has been involved with more than 40 airports including terminals in Brunei, Nice, Bordeaux, Manila, Osaka, Jakarta and Abu Dhabi.

Andreu, 65 is currently overseeing a 2,500 seat opera house project next to Tiananmen Square in Beijing, but is reportedly returning to Paris to join the airport terminal collapse investigation.

The £300m (€448.3m) titanium and glass dome-shaped project in Beijing has been beset with problems and has been repeatedly delayed.

His design for the first terminal at Charles de Gaulle in 1974 was considered to be the most innovative the aviation industry had seen at the time.

His other projects include the 1989 Grande Arche de La Defense, a Paris office in the shape of a hollow cube.