Alec Tzannes reassures me that I'm right to be interviewing him. The architect tells me this as we settle for morning tea at Kensington Street Social, in the heart of Central Park, a residential and public square he designed in Sydney's inner-city Chippendale.

Many people recognise One Central Park, the Jean Nouvel-designed 34-level residential tower with wall-mounted shrubbery and hanging parabolic mirror. That building is just one, however, on the site that Tzannes coaxed to life over a torturous 12-year period.