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.

You don't always have to show art in what's called a white box; you can have a kind of complexity within an exhibit which actually respects the art as well.

What's similar between Britain and America is the lack of good-quality civic buildings.

In Iraq, many of my female friends were architects and professionals with a lot of power during the 1980s while all the men were at war in Iran.

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

Would they call me a diva if I were a guy?

Indeed, our designs become more ambitious as we see the new possibilities created by the technology of other industries.