Going for gold: David Chipperfield's best buildings in pictures

Chipperfield at the restored Neues Museum in Berlin, one of his biggest projects to date. 'His architecture is one of calm rational elegance, he is a craftsman of delightful spaces and beautiful detailed buildings, and has carved out a career which is an inspiration to anyone seeking to work outside the boundaries of their home country,' said the president of Riba, Ruth Reed Photograph: Michael Kappeler/AFP/Getty Images

An interior view of the staircase of the Neues Museum – a 19th-century structure that was bombed to near-destruction during the second world war, and only recently returned to its former glory. The competition to restore it was launched in 1997, and it was finally opened to the public last spring Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP

A worker cleans the windows of the new literature museum designed by Chipperfield in Marbach am Neckar, Germany in 2006, which won his practice the Stirling prize in 2007. Centring on a modified neoclassical colonnade, it pays tribute to the town where Schiller was born Photograph: Michael Latz/AFP/Getty Images

Not everything Chipperfield does is classical or calm: this is the dynamic America's Cup building ‘Veles e Vents’ (Sails and Winds) in Valencia, Spain. As well as looking impressively sleek and sporty, it was built in just 11 months, in time for the 2007 competition Photograph: Christian Richter

In addition to large-scale projects, Chipperfield has several boutique buildings to his name. This is Am Kupfergraben 10 in Berlin Photograph: Ute Zscharnt for DCA

Chipperfield's coolly modernist Museum Folkwang in Essen, Germany is among much else a tribute to Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – a key influence Photograph: Christian Richters/Chipperfield

One of Chipperfield's few British buildings is the BBC headquarters in Glasgow, centrepiece of the corporation's Scottish operation. It was described by the Guardian's Steve Rose as 'a cross between a funky modern hotel and a Tuscan hillside village' Photograph: Michael Boyd/RIBA

But, having been neglected in his homeland for so long, Chipperfield is finally succeeding in building here. Here is an artist's impression of his new Turner Contemporary art gallery in Margate, which is under construction at the moment and due for completion next year Photograph: Turner Contemporary

Another 2011 project, the Hepworth gallery in Wakefield, west Yorkshire, will be devoted to sculpture, built around a collection of key works by Barbara Hepworth Photograph: Richard Davies/RIBA