What I try to do is the art of building, and the art of building is the art of construction; it is not only about forms and shapes and images.

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.

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.

If, early on, you know how things are put together, then you can build. The architect is in charge of making - he is not an artist.

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 design for the use of a building and the place and for the people who use it... the reputation for arrogance comes because when work is offered to me, I look whether I can find a genuine interest in quality.

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