I Always Thought I Was Powerful, Since

I Made A Decision When I Was In School That I'd Have A Lot Of Male Friends.

I Am Quite Sensitive To Politics, Because You Know, As An Arab, An Iraqi, All Your Life, You Are Very Conscious Of It.

For Many Years, I Hated Nature. As A Student, I Refused To Put A Plant Anywhere - A Living Plant, That Is. Dead Plants Were Ok.

Architecture Is Really About Well-being. I Think That People Want To Feel Good In A Space ... On The One Hand It's About Shelter, But It's Also About Pleasure.

My Earliest Memory Of Architecture, I Was Perhaps 6 Or 7 Years Old, Was Of My Aunt Building A House In Mosul In The North Of Iraq. The Architect Was A Close Friend Of My Father's And He Used To Come To Our House With The Drawings And Models. I Remember Seeing The Model In Our Living Room And I Think It Triggered Something, As I Was Completely Intrigued By It.