Japanese architecture is very much copied in this country and in Europe.

So what we have tried to do in our later buildings is to try to be completely consistent as a painter is consistent or as a sculptor is consistent. Architecture also must be very consistent.

I'd like to do a lot of things - whether in design or architecture or business.

The architecture profession has lost a lot of its integrity especially in the USA. The general architect here has no scruples no ambitions.

The American attitude towards efficiency and execution should always underlie architecture.

It's my goal to make a building as immaterial as possible. Architecture is a very material thing. It takes a lot of resources so why not eliminate what you don't need as long as you're able to achieve the same result?

I strive for an architecture from which nothing can be taken away.

The building of the architecture of a novel - the craft of it - is something I never tire of.

I see the Beijing National Stadium as an architectural project. I accepted Herzog and De Meuron's invitation to collaborate on the design and our proposal won the competition. From beginning to end I stayed with the project. I am committed to fostering relationships between a city and its architecture.

Liquid architecture. It's like jazz - you improvise you work together you play off each other you make something they make something. And I think it's a way of - for me it's a way of trying to understand the city and what might happen in the city.