I'm trying to discover - invent, I suppose - an architecture, and forms of urban planning, that do something of the same thing in a contemporary way. I started out trying to create buildings that would sparkle like isolated jewels; now I want them to connect, to form a new kind of landscape, to flow together with contemporary cities and the lives of their peoples.

I don't like the masculine style, jeans. I like issey miyake... and black dresses.

I made a decision when I was in school that I'd have a lot of male friends.

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

If I'm in london it can be different than if I'm somewhere else.

Know what it is that you are trying to find out.

I am quite sensitive to politics, because you know, as an Arab, an Iraqi, all your life, you are very conscious of it.