I'm suspicious of the idea of architects acting like business executives, brand managers, or purveyors of luxury goods.

Most architects work in studios largely divorced from academia, as if ideas, criticism and historical research were irrelevant.

Often, architects work too hard trying to make their buildings look different. It's like we're actors let loose on a stage, all speaking our parts at the same time in our own private languages without an audience.

When the Americans are behind you, they're behind you 100%, and this gives you real confidence as an architect. They expect you to lead a building project - to make the kind of big and costly decisions that, in Britain, have been handed over to project managers and cost-cutters.

Not many architects have the luxury to reject significant things.

Business managers don't want to come here because you have a former business manager on the board,