My relationship to plants becomes closer and closer. They make me quiet; I like to be in their company.

When I start, my first idea for a building is with the material. I believe architecture is about that. It's not about paper, it's not about forms. It's about space and material.

Normally, architects render a service. They implement what other people want. This is not what I do. I like to develop the use of the building together with the client, in a process, so that as we go along we become more intelligent.

Designing is a matter of concentration. You go deep into what you want to do. It's about intensive research, really. The concentration is warm and intimate and like the fire inside the earth - intense but not distorted. You can go to a place, really feel it in your heart. It's actually a beautiful feeling.

I've said goodbye to the overworked notion that architecture has to save the world.

Small museums are great. Big museums are a drag.

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.