In Iraq, many of my female friends were architects and professionals with a lot of power during the 1980s while all the men were at war in Iran.
Architecture is how the person places herself in the space. Fashion is about how you place the object on the person.
Obviously for some people there is a big connection between music and the way you can create a space.
I don’t think that architecture is only about shelter, is only about a very simple enclosure. It should be able to excite you, to calm you, to make you think.
As a woman, I’m expected to want everything to be nice and to be nice myself. A very English thing. I don’t design nice buildings – I don’t like them. I like architecture to have some raw, vital, earthy quality.
Architecture is particularly difficult for women; there’s no reason for it to be. I don’t want to blame men or society, but I think it was for a long time, the clients were men, the building industry is all male.
Architecture is unnecessarily difficult. It’s very tough.
I think about architecture all the time. That’s the problem. But I’ve always been like that. I dream it sometimes.
Half of architecture students are women, and you see respected, established female architects all the time.
I really love Miami, but I don’t think the architecture matches the city. It’s a bit too commercial.
All the privileged can travel, see different worlds; not everyone can. I think it is important for people to have an interesting locale nearby.
I am equally proud of all of my architectural projects. It’s always rewarding to see an ambitious design become reality.
People say I design architectural icons. If I design a building and it becomes an icon, that’s ok.
If I wanted to do clothes or if I wanted to make a building or design a choreography, you are able to do that – they are all under a similar kind of design umbrella.
Education, housing and hospitals are the most important things for society.
Good education is so important. We do need to look at the way people are taught. It not just about qualifications to get a job. It’s about being educated.
It’s very important that historic cities are allowed to reinvent their future.