I make a model of the site. There are some obvious things: where the entrance should be, where the cars have to go in. You start to get the scale of it. You understand the client's needs, and what the client is hoping for and yearning for.

An architect is given a program, budget, place, and schedule. Sometimes the end product rises to art - or at least people call it that.

Art is about people. I think the discussion about whether architecture is art or not is lamebrain.

We should celebrate variety rather than conformity and allow people to express themselves. That we don't is more of our denial.

Those who say only artists and architects can create are the ones who are elitist.

Generally people are more impressed with the services and the comfort issues than the design.

I used to read more when I was a kid than I do now. It was all sort of fuel for the fire to teach you how to think and how to make things and it informed the architecture that I was doing. It's better coming in with that history and that kind of knowledge and depth of understanding of humanity that is very important for building buildings - for understanding people and how they should live and how you could make your lives better and stuff like that.