The intent of the house was to be an urban villa. A house that has interior privacy, both indoors and outdoors. A central courtyard with three sides. A place we could do a lot of entertaining.

This is a place to hold conversations. We had eight or 10 people in here for New Year's, drinking port and smoking cigars.

I had sat around campfires all my life, since I was 10 years old. I wanted the sound of water.

We didn't want a trophy home. We wanted people to be invited into the house to see all the wondrous things, features that the public doesn't get to see.