Modern buildings of our time are so huge that one must group them. Often the space between these buildings is as important as the buildings themselves.

We used to build temples, and museums are about as close as secular society dares to go in facing up to the idea that a good building can change your life (and a bad one ruin it).

We try to make buildings last long and be resilient but also be not so idiosyncratic that they can't change.

A profound design process eventually makes the patron, the architect, and every occasional visitor in the building a slightly better human being.

Architects mostly work for privileged people, people who have money and power. Power and money are invisible, so people hire us to visualize their power and money by making monumental architecture. I love to make monuments, too, but I thought perhaps we can use our experience and knowledge more for the general public, even for those who have lost their houses in natural disasters.

Contemporary architects tend to impose modernity on something. There is a certain concern for history but it’s not very deep. I understand that time has changed, we have evolved. But I don’t want to forget the beginning. A lasting architecture has to have roots.