When imaginatively conceived and deftly executed, architecture has an impact far beyond its footprint. A great building can revive a neighbourhood, energize a community, or simply impart a widespread sense of wonder. This is exactly the kind of paradox this highly intelligent and self-questioning architect revels in. It is a rollercoaster of radical ideas. Cities draw their inspiration from what's around them as much as what's been planned to go inside them. 

As an industry, we can design and construct grand structures of such size and strength that just half a century ago they would have been mere fantasies. An architect who claims to distrust fashions in design, he is responsible for some of the most eye catching of all new buildings. Sheer bigness of cities and their buildings today means that the old classical and Modern Movement rules of design, proportion and planning are largely meaningless. Our engineering technology has since caught up to our dreams, but as our ambitions and technical abilities have grown, so has public impatience. Perhaps inventiveness prevails, where underlying all these edifices is a deep connection to place, with each design sensitively responding to its locale’s history and aesthetic traditions. Projects that achieve both goals tend to have the most public support, in turn reflecting well on the public officials So what characterizes the most compelling structures now? Distinctiveness, first and foremost.

Architecture -  Architectural Digest,. 2014. 'Ten Daring New Buildings Around The World'. Accessed May 13 2014. http://www.architecturaldigest.com/architecture/2014-02/buzzworthy-new-buildings-architecture-article.

Architecture Computing - Glancey, Jonathan. 2008. 'Welcome To The Future'. The Guardian. Accessed May 13 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2007/aug/27/architecture.chinaarts2008.

Engineering - Roadsbridges.com,. 2014. 'BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION: Movable Traffic | Roads & Bridges'. Accessed May 13 2014. http://www.roadsbridges.com/bridge-construction-movable-traffic.