Architecture is about public space held by buildings.
My passion and great enjoyment for architecture, and the reason the older I get the more I enjoy it, is because I believe we – architects – can effect the quality of life of the people.
Form follows profit is the aesthetic principle of our times.
My architecture tends to be legible, light and flexible. You can read it. You look at a building, and you can see how it is constructed. I put the structure outside.
Architecture is measured against the past; you build in the future, and you try to imagine the future.
Of course I know very little about architecture, and the older I get the less I know.
I believe very strongly, and have fought since many years ago – at least over 30 years ago – to get architecture not just within schools, but architecture talked about under history, geography, science, technology, art.
Architecture is a slow business, and city planning even slower.
Architecture is a living thing. If I want to leave something to the future, it has to be able to change – but retain something of the ethos that we built up over 50 years.
A greater focus on design in all new homes would make the best use of land, create homes and public spaces, and reinforce the structures of urban life.
Suburban sprawl leads to social atomisation and fragmentation and is environmentally disastrous, as carbon-intensive car journeys displace local shops and replace public transport.
You have to modernise you have to change – you can’t just be traditional for the fun of being traditional.
The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved.