Because the British designer of a carbon-neutral city in Abu Dhabi pioneered the idea that being green is cool

Last Trip: Paris—combining meetings on projects in the United States, Riyadh, and Abu Dhabi with the opening of Anselm Kiefer's production of Am Anfang at the Opera House.
Next Trip: New York and Dallas, where I will attend the opening of the Winspear Opera House. Opera houses can be quite unwelcoming. We made an open place, with informal spaces so you can visit the café even when there's no performance.
Life-Changing Trip: In 1961, when I got a Henry Fellowship, which I elected to take at Yale University. I remember flying from London on Icelandic Airways, which was the equivalent of the budget airlines of today. It was a crossing that took me not only to a new country but to a new life with new possibilities.

You designed Beijing Airport. It's the largest in the world—is it green too?
The airport is unprecedented in scale, equivalent to Heathrow's five terminals plus 17 percent of that total all under one roof. The terminal is highly advanced environmentally, with southeast-oriented skylights to maximize heat gain from the early-morning sun as well as a system that minimizes energy consumption and carbon emissions. It is more energy-efficient than five or six separate terminals.

Does China's breakneck growth cause any concern?
Heathrow took more than 50 years to reach its current size. Beijing Airport was conceived, designed, and built in less than 5 years. This is in line with the urbanization of China—the equivalent of a similar change in Europe in the nineteenth century. What took 200 years then is a mere 20 years now. Building in China is quite unlike anywhere else in the world. There's an incredible sense of "can do," with an extraordinary degree of intelligence and coordination, all of which means that decisions can be made very quickly.

What sort of society is China becoming, and are there risks in the rush to modernity?
China is at a crossroads in establishing which urban model to adopt: the sprawling North American model dependent on cars and motorways, or one that accepts the car but also embraces walking, bicycles, and public transport, inspired by the European model. The relationship between urban density and energy consumption makes the choice critical. The country is already the world's second-largest consumer of oil. It is predicted that well before the end of this century, there will be no more oil, gas, petroleum, or fossil fuel. China needs urban development that is economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable.

You are also working on the Moscow Tower, the world's tallest building. Are countries all competing through architecture to be the best?
Buildings can be used as powerful symbols of national pride and ambition, but everything we design must be a response to the unique culture and climate rather than a monument to prosperity. When a building is "the largest," a bridge "the longest," or a tower "the highest," it may attract a great deal of attention, but for every one of these spectaculars, we produce many equally deserving but low-profile projects. It is regrettable that these projects are not as well-known.