Presence is like a gap in the flow of history, where all of [a] sudden it is not past and not future.

There was a time when I experienced architecture without thinking about it.

I grew up in a craftsman's home, where things were done with our own hands. I did cabinetmaking for four years and I hated it.

In a fragment of a second you can understand: Things you know, things you don’t know, things you don’t know that you don’t know, conscious, unconscious, things which in a fragrant of a second you can react to: we can all imagine why this capacity was given to us as human beings - I guess to survive. Architecture to me has the same kind of capacity. It takes longer to capture, but the essence to me is the same. I call this atmosphere. When you experience a building and it gets to you. It sticks in your memory and your feelings. I guess thats what I am trying to do.

There is still a real need for good quality architecture, not paper architecture, but the real stuff.

I am convinced that a good building must be capable of absorbing the traces of human life and taking on a specific richness... I think of the patina of age on materials, of innumerable small scratches on surfaces, of varnish that has grown dull and brittle, and of edges polished by use.

Presence is like a gap in the flow of history, where all of [a] sudden it is not past and not future.