When I am asked what I believe in, I say that I believe in architecture. Architecture is the mother of the arts. I like to believe that architecture connects the present with the past and the tangible with the intangible.

Whiteness allows the architectural ideas to be understood most clearly - the difference between opacity and transparency, solid and void, structure and surface. These things are more perceptible in a white environment. They have a greater clarity.

Architecture which enters into a symbiosis with light does not merely create form in light, by day and at night, but allow light to become form.

The responsibility of an architect is to create a sense of order, a sense of place, a sense of relationship.

When I think of a place of worship, I think of a place where one can sit and be reminded of all the things that are important outside our individual lives. To express spirituality, the architect has to think of the original material of architecture, space and light.

Any work of architecture that has with it some discussion, some polemic, I think is good. It shows that people are interested, people are involved.

One of the real challenges, since we're working in so many places - Mexico, Japan, Brazil - is understanding variations, both in terms of culture and context.