An Angus-born architect who helped create an Olympic Games landmark has died after battling a brain tumour.
Kathryn Findlay, 60, was behind the ArcelorMittal Orbit sculpture in the Olympic Park, London.
Her architectural input made the 375ft tower into a functional building.
The daughter of a Forfar sheep farmer who left Scotland for Japan, Ms Findlay founded Ushida Findlay with her then-husband Eisaku Ushida in 1986.
Her mentor and former tutor at the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA) in London, Peter Cook, described Ms Findlay’s death as “an enormous loss to architecture and to her many admirers.”
Deyan Sudjic, who commissioned her to design a housing project for Glasgow’s Year of Architecture in 1999, said: “She was an uncategorisable and unpredictable talent.”
Neil Baxter, secretary of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) in Edinburgh and a friend for 15 years, described her as a “truly brilliant architect” who had managed to transform the profession in a gentle and unassuming way.
“She is one of the few people who have managed to completely change architectural thinking for the whole planet,” he said.
“Her mixture of Scottish pragmatism, slight AA wackiness and Japanese logic and lyricism came together in her unique brand of architecture in a way that was transformative without ever doing a big ‘I am’.”
Ms Findlay is survived by her two children, Miya and Hugo Ushida.
A service of remembrance will take place in the Chapel at Caroline Gardens, Asylum Road, London, on January 25 at 10.30am.