Tom Wright praises a Foster and Partners building inspired by apples, but has only a raspberry for a Parisian landmark

The £70m Sage Gateshead sits in good architectural company alongside the Baltic Centre and the renowned Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Its organic, shell-like facade – apparently inspired by a shrink-wrapped packet of apples – has a glazed concourse around the front and sides with unrivalled views of this vibrant northern city. It’s no wonder Newcastle is fast becoming the city people want to visit, live and work in.

Inside, it’s as contemporary as the exterior. It houses halls, auditoriums and rooms to seat as many as 1700 people, and all have world-class acoustics. With the Disability Discrimination Act coming into full force this year, the entire building is fully accessible to people with special needs or any kind of disability.

My blunder are 1970s tower blocks such as Montparnasse Tower in Paris. They are brown, monolithic and featureless. It is the memory of such structures that gives us pause whenever anybody proposes a skyscraper, even though buildings such as the proposed “shard of glass” for London’s South Bank and the Swiss Re Tower demonstrate how inspirational and beautiful they can be. Architecture is an increasingly important reason for people around the world to visit Britain and we have an increasingly alluring blend of traditional and contemporary buildings to appeal to such visitors.

Tom Wright is chief executive of VisitBritain