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

My hand is the extension of the thinking process - the creative process.

You can't really say what is beautiful about a place, but the image of the place will remain vividly with you.

There is a role and function for beauty in our time.

People tend not to use this word beauty because it's not intellectual - but there has to be an overlap between beauty and intellect.

At the same time, I would add that the American people have a lot of courage.

I hope America can also be the cultural leader of the world, and use this frontier spirit to lead and show others that we need courage to go places where we have not gone before.

When I design buildings, I think of the overall composition, much as the parts of a body would fit together. On top of that, I think about how people will approach the building and experience that space.

The level of detail and craft is something that's inscribed within the original design concept. And so when I begin to draw, I know what kind of detailing I want the building to have.

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.