What the people are within, the buildings express without.

If you look at the entrance halls of the skyscrapers of the 1920s and 1930s, they are very welcoming. They are public spaces with enormous amounts of display and marble and so on. They were havens off...

I needed to understand the spirit of a tall building, what makes it important, what should I try to achieve in a tall building. It became a very interesting problem, something that I like very much.

Architects create spaces that accommodate human activity.

Nine out of nine architects start with a sketch, and then they say, 'What should we make it out of?' I start from the bottom up - what should it be made out of - and then I worry about what should it...

I'd love to go and visit the Mosque in Mecca again, just for the sheer beauty of it, not for God - much the way a non-Catholic might go to Vatican City because of the beauty of the buildings and the...

There is a lot of interest in the arts, music, theatre, filmmaking, engineering, architecture and software design. I think we have now transitioned the modern-day version of the entrepreneur into the...

The great houses of Britain have, for centuries, been the guardians of much of our history, not just of the families who built and lived in them, but of the people who worked there, of the local area,...

Light, God's eldest daughter, is a principal beauty in a building.

The cathedral, at its noblest, is the best outward symbol of the spiritual nature of man, as it is also the most suggestive measure and prophecy of the corporate life of man.

If I failed in acting, I wanted to have a backup, thus I chose architecture. I learnt painting as well.

I have often called attention to the fact that walking through the streets in the Middle Ages was a different experience from nowadays. Right and left, there were house facades that were built out of...

When I engaged the team at Mitchell Wall, it was clear from the beginning that this was a very special architectural firm.

A room is not a room without natural light.

The Etihad Arena is very nice.

Avant-garde architects have never been able to depend on the support of the establishment, since the customary patrons of this most conservative and slowly moving art form have historically been...

Loft living is the antithesis of suburban domesticity, if only because the open spaces don't easily accommodate family life. Lofts also offer residents the opportunity - and responsibility - to...

In 2008, when Russia attacked Georgia, Western countries took it as an isolated incident, but probably this was the start of the push against our underlying international security architecture. And...

I have been criticized rather strenuously by painters and sculptors for not incorporating their work in our buildings.

I was an altar boy in an incredible monastery that was attached to a rectory. The theater of the church is the most incredible theater, and in this church, it was beyond. It was this huge monastery....

I love when architects build a golf course that compliments the landscape rather than intrudes upon it.

What if we treat the high-rise like a mountain, or we have gardens in the sky, or waterfalls? I think that's the most challenging thing I want to try in my architecture.

I'm really a fighter against modernism equaling brutalism.

We experience every space in five senses, so it's strange that architects design just for the eyes.

When I work on sculpture, I don't have to worry about function. When I work on a piece of architecture, I must think about function all the time.

Care should be taken that all buildings are well lighted: in those of the country this point is easily accomplished, because the wall of a neighbour is not likely to interfere with the light.

My buildings are all on budget.

I see my buildings as pieces of cities, and in my designs I try to make them into responsible and contributing citizens.

Cities are about juxtaposition. In Florence, classical buildings sit against medieval buildings. It's that contrast we like. In Bordeaux, we built law courts right next door to what is effectively a...

Sympathetic cracks. A term frequently used by architects and surveyors in terms of ageing houses. I know what they mean.