Tension is an interesting quality - and architecture must have it. There should be elements of the inexplicable, the mysterious, and the poetic in something that is perfectly rational.

When you have rules to abide by, does that curtail you as a designer, or set you free? People think of classical architecture visually, but I think the brilliant part of it is actually spatial.

I was brought up to reuse things.

What I do isn't radical. It's just distinct in small ways.

To me, the nicest luxury would be to have a room where I could keep all my books in one place - and have space for more.

I know I'm old-fashioned, but there's just something about the act of looking at books versus taking in information on a screen, which is so one-dimensional. There's a sense of ownership that you have with books, a physical connection.

The secret of good architecture is having more than meets the eye.