No one ever contributed anything to my designs.
I think it`s really important to use your hands and get close to materials. To be up close to real things like rain and mud; to have contact with nature.
But I think it`s important that things endure.
Commerce is against morality. Morality is going to lose every time.
But I think I`m probably happiest about my work in the contract field: auditoriums of concert halls, stadiums, theatres, stations, airports.
You`ve got to build a career and a practice.
I think there`s a tendency for modern man to become dominated by gadgets and machines, taking us further and further away from the things I`ve been talking about.
Well, I`d probably go for any work I could get.
I would think twice about designing stuff for which there was no need and which didn`t endure.
I can`t climb very seriously now but I was a bit of a freak.
I`ve always walked and climbed; spent a lot of time in the arctic and places.
We used to get published a lot. And there was this vodka advertisement... it embarrassed me a lot afterwards.
That construction techniques, materials and economics are relevant. Along with that, hopefully, some poetry and pleasantness in terms of looks.
Well the most successful of course was this Polypropylene chair.
There`s this very vulnerable planet of ours with finite resources. Architects and designers have, I think, a fair responsibility for conserving energy and materials, and making things durable.
I`m not against vodka - they just asked us. They put out some story about us entertaining international celebrities with vodka, which of course wasn`t true.
We used to work an inordinate amount.
I`m pretty much a vegetarian.
I was born in High Wycombe, which was a furniture place. And it just seemed inevitable.
Magazines and advertising are flogging the idea that you have to keep changing things and get something new. I think that`s balls - evil. But obviously that`s your livelihood.
I think and hope there are far more people aware of the need to look after our future.
I think the first things that are relevant are that things should work well; they should function.