Mike's great passion is music, he plays the sax and he even considered a career as musician for a while, but his interest in physics won out. How to bring those two fields of interest together? It took a dual study in engineering and architecture to achieve that.
‘In music it is also all about proportions, forces and structures, and the whole idea is that beauty should make technical sense. In construction, as in the case of a bridge for instance, technology and beauty also merge.’
What he values at ZJA is the philosophy to start with the intrinsic beauty of the constructive design; there is no patience for arbitrary frills. As an architect he prefers to be a mediator working to achieve the best result. The best result is a design that successfully combines engineering and beauty and incorporates the ways people use and experience architecture.