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

My earliest memory of architecture, I was perhaps 6 or 7 years old, was of my aunt building a house in mosul in the north of iraq. The architect was a close friend of my father's and he used to come to our house with the drawings and models. I remember seeing the model in our living room and I think it triggered something, as I was completely intrigued by it.

I really love Miami, but I don't think the architecture matches the city. It's a bit too commercial.

I've always thought that design can have equal importance to the idea of internal architecture. Professionally, things can be very dogmatic - you do the architecture, someone else does the interiors, someone else does the furniture, the fabric, etc. But I think design is all-encompassing.

I loved London. In the 1970s... it was very exciting, really wild.

People say I design architectural icons. If I design a building and it becomes an icon, that's ok.

The idea for a building or an object can come up just as quick, but there is a big difference in process.