I had a cardiac arrest in 2010. I also had a close call in the early days in Cardiff when I was in a band called the Denims. We were in a van driving along a narrow mountain road. Somebody wanted to go to the toilet, so we stopped, and afterwards the driver took a wrong turn and we went careering down the mountain. Everyone was screaming, it was like a nightmare. At the bottom was the railway line, but the van stopped just in time. We were very lucky.

When I was five and the doctors walked in and said to my mum: “I am not sure if you will be taking him home.”

Hitchhiking across Australia as a teenager, relying on the kindness of passing serial killers.

A motorbike crash. I broke my shoulder and ribs and was so scared I didn’t ride for two years.

interior design. I would love to design your house for you. At night, I sketch designs for King's Cross, new versions of the British Library, and new versions of my kitchen.

Impatience with difficult projects: panicking and giving up too quickly.

At 12, I wanted to be an architect, at 18, a writer, and now, at forty, an architect again. I’m powerfully drawn to everything related to building, but I also love ideas. These are my two passions.

Learning to give up on perfection may be just about the most romantic move any of us could make.

I'd take a course in bread-making and open a small bakery.

Fear, anxiety, longing, love, art, beauty.