Since Stonehenge, architects have always been at the cutting edge of technology. And you can't separate technology from the humanistic and spiritual content of a building.

Manhattan, one of the most moneyed spots on the planet, also has one of the greatest concentrations of people in its skyscrapers. It's also, of course, the place where every architect wants to build his tower.

I hope that any expansion of London will learn from the planning examples of some of its most desirable areas such as Chelsea, Notting Hill, Belgravia and Mayfair. All are characterised by high density and a generosity of green spaces.

As an architect, you design for the present, with an awareness of the past, for a future which is essentially unknown.

If the only constant is change then design is going to go on for as long as human beings inhabit the planet, and beyond the planet.

I would never wear anything with a logo. That I really find difficult. It’s a frustration that I’ll find a nice shirt or something and it’s got 50 prints of the logo on it – why do they do this?

I tend to move between turtlenecks and shirts and ties. I don’t really have a uniform in the sense that some people might.

I’m not a creature of habit. I like to find things from unexpected sources.

Our object in life should be to accumulate a great number of grand questions to be asked and resolved in eternity...

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.