Byline: Hugh Pearman

What makes a monument endure? Hugh Pearman talks to Norman Foster, in the light of the Millennium competition.

Design a landmark to commemorate the millennium, we said. It can take any form you like. It can go anywhere in or around the UK. It doesn't have to be a building but it must be a permanent record of the passing of one particularly significant moment in time.

We were, really, asking for the moon. We The Sunday Times and the Architecture Foundation did not want to set any limits to people's imaginations. We wanted people to think more widely than merely designing a latter-day Eiffel Tower. We mentioned environmental schemes, we mentioned electronics, we mentioned that the landmark need not be just one thing in one place, but we left everything as open as we possibly could, to allow for what every competition seeks but cannot legislate for the brilliantly unexpected.

In the end, we were disappointed. It wasn't for lack of effort the scores of you who entered tried, in some cases with great ingenuity, to tackle this all-things-are-possible brief, and our thanks go to you all. But the judges searched in vain for the brilliantly unexpected. There were clever schemes, funny schemes, things floating in space, things that fell from the sky and mysterious objects you might stumble upon in the countryside.

There were towers, of course, and electronic beacons and giant interactive TV screens. There were forests, arches, standing stones, earthworks, temples, funfairs, even a special breed of souvenir terrier....