Our architecture is driven by a belief that the quality of our surroundings has a direct influence on the quality of our lives, whether at home, in the workplace, the cultural building or the public realm. The same thinking applies at the larger scale of infrastructure, whether that is an airport, a metro system, a city centre or a regional plan.

Design in that sense is all-embracing, ranging from the functional and environmental performance of a building to a concern for its physical and cultural context. Not least is a concern for the 'poetic' dimension, such as we find in the modelling and sculpting of spaces by natural light.