When you were at Brighton College, what did you want to be when you 'grew-up'?
I joined the Junior School in September 1959 - aged eight and a half (when my parents moved to Singapore) and left the College in July 1968 - twice the age of when I began. My father was a soldier and I assumed that was what I would become until my inspirational art teacher - Gordon Taylor - talked about architecture. I knew then that was what I would most like to do.
What are you now you've grown up?
I am that architect. I have a practice that began with two of us and now has 340. I spend my day drawing, talking and encouraging. It is wonderful to have a job that you would want to do even if you weren't paid to do it. It's a privilege to work with such talented colleagues. And it's exciting to face new problems every day without the certainty that you will find the answer.
What is your best memory of school?
My Latin teacher refusing to teach me. At the beginning of my 'O level' year my poor aptitude for the subject was finally revealed and he announced he wouldn't waste his or my time. As Latin clashed with Art on the timetable, I was able to leave the room and join the Art class. It was my happiest academic moment and, looking back, perhaps the subject of benign conspiracy.
What was the best piece of advice you were given?
The elegance of simplicity. That we spend so much effort complicating things often for the wrong reasons - to seem more intelligent, to camouflage our lack of understanding or because we can't think clearly enough. I was taught that the best ideas are most often the simplest but they can take a long time to get right - summed up by Pascal - "I am sorry I wrote you such a long letter; I didn't have time to write a short one"
What do you do /did you do as a career?
I plan things that get built. My practice - now over thirty years old - works on projects of every scale. We design furniture and we design new cities. We restore historic structures and we develop new construction systems. The most notable projects we have done include the restoration of the Royal Festival Hall, the masterplan for the London 2012 Olympics and, of course, two buildings at Brighton College - the Simon Smith building and New House.
What does your job involve?
It involves everything I love doing. We sketch constantly. We talk a lot too - to develop ideas, to criticize their effectiveness, to hone their efficacy and, we hope, to make things beautiful. It involves presenting those thoughts to clients and persuading authorities to allow us to build them. And it involves managing a large and industrious team to ensure we get the best from each other.
What are the most challenging parts of your job?
Winning commissions. Nearly every project we do is won through competition. We can spend weeks - even months - going from a long list to a short list, building every detail in our imagination and not win in the end. The challenge is to ensure that such investment - though expensive in time and money - is never wasted so that it becomes research or practice for a future occasion.
What have you done that you are most proud of?
Not a list of professional accolades but being a father of two children. My daughter is an artist and my son works for the BBC. As an employer of so many fine young people, I am constantly struck by how we are the beneficiary of parents managing to do the right thing. There is only so much a school can do and seeing my children become independent and caring has made me very proud.
What is the single thing that would most improve the quality of your life?
To be reunited with my elder brother. He died tragically young from Motor Neurone Disease. At what was then Chichester House - in the early sixties, without internet or mobile phones and only seeing parents for eight weeks in the year, my brother was 'in loco parentis' - my mentor and my friend. To again have his wise advice, his sense of humour and his approval would be wonderful.
What are the three objects you would take with you to a desert island?
First, a good optical telescope to make sense of what has always been a mystery. The clear night skies would surely offer extraordinary views of our galaxy. Second, a music player loaded with all of Schubert's carefully composed compositions. I would never tire of that. And third, an indestructible photograph album with pictures of all those who are close to me and who I would miss terribly. Boarding school compelled an independence but fortunately never removed the need for closeness.
How would you like to be remembered?
We would all like to be remembered as better people than we really are. The vanity of wanting to be defined by legacy is hard to resist. But life and all its lessons are only worthwhile if the next generation is the beneficiary of the last. And I just hope that I have been able to hand on to others some of the qualities I was taught by that wonderfully inspirational art teacher - Gordon Taylor. Teachers have that effect on people.