Great design is something which has a longevity to it, because it's an appreciation of what
it is.
I think there is a lot of great design, not only in architecture, in product design.
Well the nice thing about doing products is, I make a sketch, we draw it up and in a few
months hopefully we get a prototype.
With architecture it goes on for two years, three years, ten years! So, in a sense this
is instant gratification.
You see thousands and thousands of interpretations of the same thing done in different ways.
Make it green, yellow, blue, it doesn't matter, silver, out of paper, out of steel, there's
a choice with everything.
It's hard for me to think of any aspect of design that is not totally democratic.
There are interior designers who just focus on the interior, as an architect you don't
think about one without thinking about the other.
The interior and exterior are somehow one thing.
The enclosure and the organisation of the building, in a sense, are hand-in-hand, it's
not one thing or another.
Well you can't do a good building without a good client.
A good client is paramount, you never know in the beginning when you have a new client
whether it's going to work out to be a good client or not, but you hope it will.
It's not as though we say 'here it is, this is it', we make lots of different studies,
we talk about them and we have an interchange of ideas and often times the first idea is
not necessarily the best idea.
You have to sort of work it through and think about, not just what the client wants but
what the context is and what it can be.
I am very interested to see the outcome of this design competition on our building down
on Charles Street.
It's the first time that I can recall this kind of event taking place and I look forward
to seeing the results.