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.

Every time a student walks past a really urgent expressive piece of architecture that belongs to his college it can help reassure him that he does have that mind does have that soul.

Until the Eighties Oslo was a rather boring town but it's changed a lot and is now much more cosmopolitan. If I go downtown I visit the harbour to see the tall ships and the ferries and to admire the modern architecture such as the Opera House or the new Astrup Fearnley Museum on the water's edge.

People can inhabit anything. And they can be miserable in anything and ecstatic in anything. More and more I think that architecture has nothing to do with it. Of course that's both liberating and alarming.

Spiritual space is lost in gaining convenience. I saw the need to create a mixture of Japanese spiritual culture and modern western architecture.

Japanese architecture is traditionally based on wooden structures that need renovating on a regular basis.

All those involved in the construction of an architectural design from the architect to the builder have an attachment to the architecture although it's difficult to quantify the attachment.

Italy is full of historical buildings. And Europe holds a great history of philosophy from Greece until today. I read all those books and see these buildings and I think of where I stand when I design my architecture.

Without this spirit Modernist architecture cannot fully exist. Since there is often a mismatch between the logic and the spirit of Modernism I use architecture to reconcile the two.

The speed of change makes you wonder what will become of architecture.