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

They all come out from the same thing; all the projects are connected somehow.

There are some very similar moments in the early work where the focus was on drawing, abstraction and fragmentation. Then it moved to the development of ideas. Lately it has become what architecture should be, which is more fluid organization. There has not been so much 'a change' but 'a development'.

Different projects give you satisfaction in different ways.

I can't focus when there's too many things around. Whenever I used to go to the office, I used to always say, 'Tidy up.'

The commission process in America and England is different. In America, they do it through an interview process, and it's really based on whether they like you or not. I mean, it's nothing to do with whether you do the best scheme or the worst scheme.

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