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A building is no good if someone's got to explain to you why it's good. You can't say you don't know enough about architecture - that's ridiculous. It's got to work on many levels.

I don't usually go in for reviews of buildings that aren't yet built, since you can tell only so much from drawings and plans, and, besides, has there ever been a building that didn't look great as a model?

It is not the beauty of a building you should look at; its the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time.

A building has integrity just like a man. And just as seldom.

Each building has to be beautiful, but cheap and fast, but it lasts forever. That is already an incredible battery of seemingly contradictory demands. So yes, I'm definitely perhaps contradictory person, but I operate in very contradictory times.

If a building looks better under construction than it does when finished, then it's a failure.

It's important for people who criticise architects - whether what they build is or isn't to your taste - to appreciate how they devote themselves and put everything into bringing a building into existence.

There are so many constraints on the architect that public buildings almost never feel free or enjoyable.

And a building must be like a human being. It must have a wholeness about it, something that is very important.

I don't feel 'vibes' when I enter a building - don't feel the previous owners looking down on me. But I do know when a place feels friendly.