I came to London when I was a year and a half for four years. Since then I have been back and forth. I do mostly feel like a Londoner: I enjoy the Angle-Saxon acceptance of difference and I feel it's more of an integrated society than most places. But this is in London, not the rest of the UK.

Technology is the only means through which you touch on new things.

Istanbul is one of the most incredible cities in the world, and a must - see as much as London, Paris, or New York. It's the past, present, and future, and a city where you never know what will happen from one minute to the next. It's also a melting pot of so many cultures from that region which is so often homogenized by the nation-state.

I wanted to be a pilot, but I was always drawing bodies. When I realised I wanted to pursue something creative, my parents pushed me towards architecture.

I think the experience of feeling isolated, of not fitting in, creates the urge to explore.

My furniture is banal and my house is pretty empty. The hardest thing to find is a sofa that is comfortable and looks good. The ones I like are never comfortable.

I wish we could edit our lives, be more selective with whom we spend time and what we spend our money on. To appreciate more what we all have - we appreciate things more when we lose them.