One cannot completely avoid this landmark character with large buildings such as these. But the city itself is also gigantic.

Criticism per se does not worry me. I've always solicited it as part of the design process.

Architects work in two ways. One is to respond precisely to a client's needs or demands. Another is to look at what the client asks and reinterpret it.

Any architectural project we do takes at least four or five years, so increasingly there is a discrepancy between the acceleration of culture and the continuing slowness of architecture.

Architecture is a rare collective profession: it's always exercised by groups. There is an essential modesty, which is a complete contradiction to the notion of a star.

In the end, there will be little else for us to do but shop.

Beauty isn't what I'm primarily interested in [in architecture]. I think appropriateness is more important.