Built to last: Richard Rogers - high and mighty

Only three other British architects have won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize before Richard Rogers was announced as this year's laureate yesterday. The first was James Stirling, who taught Lord Rogers at Yale University, where a fellow student was Norman Foster, who later became the second. The third, for the record, was Zaha Hadid, three years ago.

But such is the influence of the man, whose designs include the Pompidou Centre in Paris, Lloyd's of London building and the Millennium Dome, that few doubted that he would eventually secure what is arguably the architectural world's most prestigious honour.

Though now 73, he continues to work at a rate that would shame men half his age, recently completing the new terminal at Madrid's Barajas airport with co-architects Estudio Lamela, new law courts for Antwerp and designs for the former World Trade Centre site in New York.

But when the Pritzker jury announced yesterday that Lord Rogers was this year's winner, it was as much for the social conscience that has driven his working practice as for the buildings themselves. In their citation, the jury, chaired by the former Arts Council chief Lord Palumbo, said they were celebrating Richard Rogers as "a humanist who reminds us that architecture is the most social of arts".

"In his writings, through his role as adviser to policy-making groups, as well as his large-scale planning work, Rogers is a champion of urban life and believes in the potential of the city to be a catalyst for social change," they said. He had "consistently pursued the highest goals for architecture" with an outlook described as "urbane and expansive".

Lord Rogers said he was very happy to have won. "I'm very honoured because it's very good for architecture and very good for the people who have worked with me over the last 40 years on wonderful buildings. It's a good moment." Richard Rogers was born in Florence in 1933, the son of a medical student and a design-loving mother. The family moved to London when Richard was five and he started public school but failed to prosper, hindered by undiagnosed dyslexia.

The Festival of Britain in 1951, which produced some extraordinary modern buildings on the South Bank in London, sparked his interest in architecture. He attended the Architectural Association in London and then Yale University in the States. He also married. Back in Britain, Rogers and his wife, Su, formed a practice with Foster, although the two men went their own ways by 1967.

Rogers soon produced one of the defining buildings of his career - a home for his parents in Wimbledon that incorporated many of the ideas which have stayed fundamental to his work. It was a simple glass structure, flexible for future use and highly insulated. Long before the current obsession with climate change, Lord Rogers understood its importance and expresses it now with vigour. "If we don't do something about climate change we may end up being wiped off the earth," he said yesterday.

He was propelled on to the international stage in 1971 when, with Renzo Piano, he won the commission for the Pompidou Centre in Paris, though it took another six years to build.

And a year later he established the Richard Rogers Partnership. Its first commission was the Lloyd's building whose futuristic Bladerunner aesthetic surprised many, not only in the City.

Since then he has produced buildings, airports, schools and even furniture from Tokyo to Melbourne, via Marseilles, Cardiff and Seoul. And he has done so on his own terms - as part of a team.

A sense of his inclusive working practice can be gleaned from the organisation of the Richard Rogers Partnership - whose name he is about to change to incorporate those of Graham Stirk and Ivan Harbour. "We're an unusual office," he said. "We're owned by a charity. I don't believe in ownership of work [so] there's no link between directors and partners and money.

"The directors earn a multiple of the lowest paid architect and the rest of the money is divided between charities and profit sharing. That creates a community spirit. And we don't do certain kinds of work, like military."

The "humanist" streak identified by the Pritzker jury is seen in his strong sense of social duty. He speaks of "responsibilities" and the strong connection between architecture and the physical environment and social inclusion. "I do think architecture is very political," he said.

He has worked with charities such as the National Communities Resource Centre, of which he is president, which has 10 million social tenants. He describes heading the Urban Task Force established by the Prime Minister and John Prescott a decade ago as "one of the most exciting things I've ever done in my life", on a par with the greatest buildings. And he now advises Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, whom he praises as "a truly great leader. I think that London has improved out of all expectations over the past 10 years."

Mr Livingstone had "embraced the urban renaissance" and operated a policy close to Lord Rogers' heart that the city should be compact, with people living, working and enjoying their leisure time in the same space. The congestion charge was "a very important idea" as was the mayor's insistence on having social housing alongside private developments to prevent ghettos.

Handsome, rich, talented and now married to the River Café chef, Ruth Rogers, Lord Rogers retains something of his origins. "Culturally I think of myself as an Italian, but I have lived here for 67 years... I love being a Londoner and I love being a Florentine. I'm a European," he said.

And he shows no signs of easing the pace. "One's best building, one hopes, will be the next building," he said. "The next mountain range is very exciting."