Norman Foster

And that is far and away the most valuable because that's going to determine what you get for your money.

So we know what happens with whoever comes along and their pot is fixed.

What if they don't know?

Then I think you have the importance of simulating, of modeling and saying, if you go in this direction, then it's going to cost you that.

If you go in this direction, it's going to cost you that.

And in many ways, again, if I try and find a simple analogy, if you take a car,

The base cost of that car, in many cases, is relatively low.

The cost of driving it out of the showroom, depending on the extras that you have either agreed or bought into, is going to change the cost of driving that car out of the showroom.

And in many cases, that is obviously true of a building.

So it's a part of the creative process to actually define that budget.

But notwithstanding illusions, the reality is that cost is always a factor.

But the important thing is also, and it's overlooked, it's not just the cost of how much it costs to buy that building, how much does it cost to run?

And then over the lifetime of that project,

the decision to spend that amount of money on that kind of building or another kind of building.

So for example, how do you put a price on the ability of the Hong Kong bank to be able to introduce that dealer's floor?

Or for Willis Faber, not to have to build another building because they can incorporate the new digital technology.

How do you put a price on that?

And how do you put a price on a building which significantly improves productivity?

Because in the longer scheme of things, the first cost of a building is a relatively small proportion of the bigger financial picture.

No, I don't think it was because I don't think that ever came into it.