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.

I'm inspired by looking at art, by looking at precedent. Looking is what you have to do if you want to make things, so you develop a critical eye.

There's no architect who doesn't want to build a library - and I am no different. With so much scrutiny now attached to reading - because of technology and how we approach it as a social activity - that is a very exciting area in architecture.

I remember, as a young architect, people always talked about I. M. Pei's concrete. He had a particular specification no one else knew.

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

I never like things that don't look nice. It's really that simple.

So much of what makes a room great is how you enter and circulate through it, how it addresses the body.