Architecture is really about well-being. I think that people want to feel good in a space... On the one hand it's about shelter, but it's also about pleasure. The intention is to really carve out of a city civic spaces and the more it is accessible to a much larger mass in public and it's about people enjoying that space. That makes life that much better. If you think about housing, education, whether schools and hospitals, these are all very interesting projects because in the way you interpret this special experience.

People often ask me if I consider myself to be an architect, fashion designer, or artist. I'm an architect. The paintings I've done are very important to me, but they were part of a process of thinking and developing.

Life in the Middle East is quite different from other places.

Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It's very tough.

I always thought I was powerful, since I was a kid.

I am equally proud of all of my architectural projects. It's always rewarding to see an ambitious design become reality.

You really have to have a goal.