Tracy Alloway

Because so much of the cultural emphasis nowadays seems to be on interior design and what the inside of a building looks like versus the exterior.

And I think if I had been thinking about these things in the 90s or the 80s, I would be much more into architecture.

Many beautiful buildings.

Absolutely.

And this was the other thing I was thinking about architecture in relation to economics is when it's done well, a beautiful building ends up being a public good, right?

It can boost an entire neighborhood.

It can revive a particular city.

It can improve the flow of traffic, improve energy efficiency, do all these things.

But so many buildings are still designed by private developers, and I'm not sure they're always incentivized to do beautiful design in that way.

How do you incentivize a private developer to do something that ends up being a public good?

Well, since you mentioned the J.P.

Morgan building, that is a big clue.

A huge clue.

So we do, in fact, have the perfect guest for today's show.

We are going to be speaking to a very famous architect, Lord Norman Foster.

He is, of course, the founder of Foster and Partners.

And we are here with him in Madrid.

Thank you so much for coming on the show.

So how much of architecture is about dealing with real-world constraints?

Because I always think there's not just physics and finance, but you're also dealing with things like zoning.