The City Is An Addictive Machine From

It Was A Book [george Packer Written On Our Presence In Nigeria] That Was Killed By The Response Of Other People. Which Sounds Quite Cowardly, Perhaps, But It Was The First Manifestation Of What Is Currently A Really Big Issue: How Political Correctness Defines The Limits Of What You Can Do. In That Sense, It Was Super-exciting And Maybe The Most Magical Project We Did, But At The Same Time Fraught With Mixed Feelings.

Lagos Has Also Had A Particular Effect On My Career. I Was There Early, And Although It Was A Courageous Step To Go There And Invest On This Scale - I Went There Maybe 20 Times - It's Also Been Also Super-controversial. There's An Old School Of Thought That Somebody Like Me Has No Place To Go There.because Of Colonialism And So On.

Why I Talked About Political Correctness: The Colonial Is Now Such A Major Taboo That Any Achievement Of The Colonial Period, Or Any Generosity Implied In Colonialism, Is Again Fundamentally Neglected Or Fundamentally Not Recognised. That's Crazy, Because History Is A Series Of Layers, And You Cannot Say, "this Layer I Support And This Layer I Cancel." History Is History And You Cannot Retrospectively Manipulate It.

Beauty Isn't What I'm Primarily Interested In [in Architecture]. I Think Appropriateness Is More Important.

Sustainability Has Become An Ornament.