Joan Bach, architect

Any work of architecture that does not inspire serenity is a mistake.

I believe in emotional architecture. There are many technical solutions to a problem, but the right one is the one that gives its users a message of beauty and emotion.

We must find the right balance between controlling the experience of a space and leaving the freedom for things to happen. When something looks like wood it should be wood, and iron should be iron.

Materials, space, form, light and colour should make a unified whole. We are not interested in collage, but in a sense of integrity within which the kaleidoscope of life can unfold.

The greatest satisfaction comes when a house is handed over and its owners make it their own. There is no greater reward.