China is building cities for a 20 to 40 percent increase in population. India is quickly growing. The carbon footprints of that and other development around the world are overwhelming.

My father probably - he had flashes of creativity - he used to do store windows for fruit stores that he worked in and stuff.

Everyone has a desire, if not a need, to use their individual signatures. Whenever people meet to talk about a project, even stuffy old businessmen, they say they want to create something new.

I can't just decide myself what's being built. Someone decides what they want, then I work for them.

For me, every day is a new thing. I approach each project with a new insecurity, almost like the first project I ever did. And I get the sweats. I go in and start working, I'm not sure where I'm going. If I knew where I was going I wouldn't do it.

Architecture and any art can transform a person, even save someone. It can for children - for anyone. It still does for me.

You see a lot of so-called architecture that part of the ego trip overpowers the functionality and the budget and all that stuff.