Elizabeth Diller

I never thought I was going to be an architect in the conventional sense.

In a progressively privatised city, the defence of public space, the production of new public space, and saving what is public really for the public is very important.

My mother and father had been through the Holocaust. The family was wiped out. I grew up never knowing aunts, uncles, or grandparents.

I cannot read on a Kindle. I love the physical experience of holding a book, cracking it open, and the process of making the right half weigh less than the left half. I only read hardcover books because I like the resistance and the presence on a bookshelf.

I can't live without my 15-inch MacBook Pro. I drag it everywhere I go. I love having a big screen with me at all times, especially in transit.

We like to take impossible things and actually make them happen.