Can you remember that special almost magical feeling you had when you looked down from a newly built tree fortress? Or peered unseen from that hidden place beneath the arching branches of a secluded bush? The uniqueness of those places could not only transform the landscape around you your familiar backyard became a medieval forest inhabited by knights, steeds and dragons but could, for a moment, transform who you imagined you were. These possibilities of place - the ability to set the world against a special backdrop, to provide the security or the motivation to see the familiar world from a new perspective, is for me the goal and the hallmark of successful architecture. It is an objective that is independent of project type, style, size or complexity and must be passionately pursued to be achieved.

It was a recollection of the joys of boyhood and these special places combined with a love of craft and a desire to build that drew me to architecture from my previous career - medicine. For me the profession of architecture offers new challenges and opportunities daily. Life experience, travel, knowledge of history, critical thinking about the relationship of the built and natural environment, the ability to listen to and work with others, leadership, organization, diplomacy, innovation, inspiration and dogged persistence all these elements and more both inform and are demanded by this profession.

In the end it is the common understanding of both client and architect about the transforming power of place that is the basis of dialogue, aspiration and creativity in a search for appropriate and inspired built form. The mutual pursuit of this objective by both client and architect is the challenge and joy of architecture.