Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It's very tough.
What's similar between Britain and America is the lack of good-quality civic buildings.
Being Iraqi taught me to be very cautious.
Education, housing and hospitals are the most important things for society.
For many years, I hated nature. As a student, I refused to put a plant anywhere - a living plant, that is. Dead plants were OK.
Of course I believe imaginative architecture can make a difference to people's lives, but I wish it was possible to divert some of the effort we put into ambitious museums and galleries into the basic architectural building blocks of society.