Architecture has its own realm. It has a special physical relationship with life. I do not think of it primarily as either a message or symbol, but as an envelope and background for life which goes on in and around it, a sensitive container for the rhythm of footsteps on the floor, for the concentration of work, for the silence of sleep.

I’m a passionate architect... I do not work for money

You feel a certain way in a glass or concrete or limestone building. It has an effect on your skin - the same with plywood or veneer, or solid timber. Wood doesn't steal energy from your body the way glass and concrete steal heat. When it's hot, a wood house feels cooler than a concrete one, and when it's cold, the other way around.

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

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

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

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