How do you like to start your weekend?
I pretty much don’t have a weekend … I’ll just treat it the same as any other day. If I’m not drawing or at the desk, I’ll be out on a walk. The weekend just means that the supermarkets are busier than normal and there are a lot more people around. It’s good when you work for yourself; it more or less is the weekend every day.

What’s your favourite thing to do on a Saturday morning?
It’s pretty hard to beat sitting at the desk or standing at the drawing board, making and drawing. I usually wake up and work on things and send emails and work before getting ready, there’s no real difference between Saturday morning and the morning, of say, Wednesday, so it goes like this – email, breakfast, work, mosque, lunch, walk, work, tea, work, dinner, work and sleep.

How do you like to unwind?
I really enjoy walking. I have the same route that I walk every day, and I usually come back and sit at my desk and have some tea and cake. Right now I’m really content with eating Orange and Almond and Carrot and Walnut cakes from this particular deli in Islington in London, with Assam tea. If I’m in town I’ll go to Fortnums and have Frozen Raspberry Yoghurt Cake with breakfast blend tea. Unwinding is usually food related or it is time spent watching an episode of an American television program just before bed. If all that fails, and sometimes I see it as not the most efficient use of time, then I’ll draw some more.

What are your essentials for a well-spent weekend?
Drawing or making, a cup of tea, a bit of cake, kebabs, friends, phone calls and emails.

What’s something you’ve been meaning to do on the weekend but haven’t got around to yet?
I keep meaning to go to the cinema, to see Skyfall in particular. As a friend put it, the good thing about earlier Bond films was the fact they weren’t entirely politically correct, I think we’re going the complete other way now.

What’s your favourite thing to do on a Sunday evening?
It’s pretty hard to beat sitting at the desk making or thinking, regardless of the day. Usually I watch Top Gear, but the series is now over, and Boardwalk Empire is a Monday thing. So I usually end up just watching ElPresadors vlogs.

What are you looking forward to next weekend?
I have a couple of things that I really need to get around to, one is completing a drawing and another is completely festive related. As it’s nearing Christmas, a very dear friend has asked me to help decorate the tree at the studio, so I need to get the decorations and make a star. The drawing is far too easy in comparison to this task.

What are you reading at the moment?
I’ve been having this really intense conversation via email with my friend – we’ve been sharing around 40 emails a day. Every dozenth or so email, or when we’ve really talked through something, such as material or surface or fabrication, I’ll get this email that starts ‘Do you know X by X?’. Needless to say this has resulted in a fairly sizable reading list. The last book I completed was On Architecture by Adolf Loos, and I started Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which, according to my friend Damien, will take a lifetime to understand, so I take around it with me. I really love reading New Scientist at mealtimes, and Plato’s Symposium is my next, highly recommended book, which I will have waiting for me when I return to London.

What inspires you?
Family, my mother is pretty amazing, and friends. You can never have enough criticism, as this is central to inspiration, and also good mentors and a team of amazing people really help at every level. It’s great when you can get advice from people who you can respect and who have helped make art. I think that’s what I find highly inspirational, the generosity of people’s time and thoughts. The Quran offers clear inspiration. Apart from that cars, Yves Klein, Sol LeWitt, Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, the moon, stargazing, Wagner and the Bauhaus are some of the things that I really find mentally stimulating. Actually I really liked seeing the Adam Pendleton works at Pace gallery. They were really striking images. I’m also very fortunate to be friends with Damien Taylor, who makes these really amazing layered resin paintings on stainless-steel panels, which are truly beautiful. Also my friend Richard Bevan, who works across the medium of film and installation – his work is really fantastic.

What was your childhood dream?
I really wanted to make things. I especially remember this one project where I designed a castle – most of my early visions were at an architectural scale. I also remember wanting to be at the collapse of the Berlin Wall, with all those people in congregation especially at that scale. I’m not sure if I was particularly strong at any single subject at school, but I felt very confident within the school’s art department. I also really enjoyed geography, but I think that was only because a lot of the learning was based on annotated diagrams of geological phenomena.

What has been your greatest achievement?
Apart from APT7, I think this is ongoing … a point that I feel that I’m getting to. I’m not sure about this being an achievement, but the pleasure of being in a position where I get to work with some truly inspirational people is pretty great. Anything that helps bring people together is a good thing and working within the world of art is amazing.

What is success to you?
Apart from it being something that you spend possibly a lifetime working towards, not just in your career but as a person, it’s something quite difficult to answer. What I think success within my work to be is that it would be great to make something that was as close to technical perfection as is possible. On the greater whole, to inspire people is success.

What are your words of wisdom?
It’s not really wisdom, just common sense, but thinking twice before doing something is and should be right up there. Also work hard. And don’t eat tuna … whaling isn’t ‘research’; sending the Rover to Mars is.

FAVOURITE WEEKEND SPOT TO:
Perk up … Steve Hatt, Islington
Relax … The Parlour Restaurant at Fortnum and Mason
Dine … Neden Urfa, Lower Clapton
Indulge … Ladurée
Shop … Farmers markets
Catch-Up … Double Six
Be inspired … Rotring