I dont remember a single thing in my childhood that was not related in some way to building.

As an architect you are a builder. You are of course more than a builder. You need to be a militant, you have to be a poet, you have to be a visionary, you have to be an artist. But certainly you have to be a builder. Everything starts from there.

You have to accept as an architect to be exposed to criticism. Architecture should not rely on full harmony

Cities are beautiful because they are created slowly; they are made by time. A city is born from a tangle of monuments and infrastructures , culture and market, national history and everyday stories. It takes 500 years to create a city, 50 to create a neighborhood.

My inspiration came from the land, ... and, of course, from Paul Klee . . . and the poetics of his paintings.

London is one of the most civilised places in the world for the procedure of making architecture and urban design.

Architects have to dream, we have to search for our Atlantises, to be explorers, adventurers, and yet to build responsibly and well.