Quote

The work that launched Snohetta into the architectural big leagues was their Oslo Opera House, which will certainly rank among the firm's highlights whatever else they may do. Although this is by any measure a triumph of city planning, the building itself is not quite a masterpiece, though very fine indeed.

An organization, no matter how well designed, is only as good as the people who live and work in it.

The best design work is really done when you spend more time with people, when you have the opportunity to be of the same mindset and the same incentives as the founder of the business.

Design must reflect the practical and aesthetic in business but above all... good design must primarily serve people.

I'm a big believer you should design work around a vast majority of people who want to do the right thing rather than around the tiny minority who might take advantage.

To work in architecture you are so much involved with society, with politics, with bureaucrats. It's a very complicated process to do large projects. You start to see the society, how it functions, how it works. Then you have a lot of criticism about how it works.

The team architecture means setting up an organization that helps people produce that great work in teams.

I don't believe in traditional company structures because the best ideas do not always come from the top.

There's a snobbery at work in architecture. The subject is too often treated as a fine art, delicately wrapped in mumbo-jumbo. In reality, it's an all-embracing discipline taking in science, art, maths, engineering, climate, nature, politics, economics.