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Architecture is measured against the past; you build in the future, and you try to imagine the future.
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You know, the environment is fragmenting, and the environment is, in many places, absolutely hideous!
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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.
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Architecture is about public space held by buildings.
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Cities are about juxtaposition.
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If I remember rightly Holland for instance has something like 45, and it's a much smaller country. In comparison we have very few and they are very badly financed.
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The one advantage of being dyslexic is that you are never tempted to look back and idealise your childhood.
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There is a Jewish tradition of family, too, but then not all Italian or Jewish families are close.
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Cities are about juxtaposition. In Florence, classical buildings sit against medieval buildings. It's that contrast we like. In Bordeaux, we built law courts right next door to what is effectively a listed historic building, and that makes it exciting.
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The gap between the rich and poor is widening fast.
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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.
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I like the idea of trying to influence society by taking a brief, then maybe subtly changing it or looking at it in a new way to see what interesting things can emerge.
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My mother was very family-oriented. And I do love being with my children.
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Everyone has the right to walk from one end of the city to the other in secure and beautiful spaces. Everybody has the right to go by public transport. Everybody has the right to an unhampered view down their street, not full of railings, signs and rubbish.
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Dyslexia, though, made me realise that people who say 'but you can't do that' aren't actually very important. I don't take 'no' too seriously.
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In Florence, classical buildings sit against medieval buildings. It's that contrast we like.
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It is quite interesting that whilst there are tremendous theories, in the 1960s when IT was born, everybody was supposedly going to their cottage in the countryside to work in a virtual way.
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If you had a carbon tax, you'd have less cars and more bicycles, more people getting around on foot and by public transport.
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Architecture is a slow business, and city planning even slower.
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Watching TV on your own is not very inspiring. But meeting people is where you get new ideas and get things done.
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Form follows profit is the aesthetic principle of our times.
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The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved.
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Society has to get a grip and put a tax on carbon. Of course, there is much that flows from that, and it is a complex situation. The small details of something such as climate change are political and social, and they are a lot about fairness and how we rebalance towards a fairer society.
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Of course I know very little about architecture, and the older I get the less I know.