It showed me that repeating winning formulas, and popular story and design choices aren't the only way to make great things; Super Mario Bros. 2 proves that both inherent and learned skill can transform something from good to really quite great (and if you stick the right brand upon it, sell a bucket load).
Looking around Witanhurst, he was taken aback: "It was quite daunting, really, to think that you're going to have to transform something like that".
"Maybe we can use them for solar panels to generate electricity for Los Angeles, to transform something that's been devastating for our land and water into something that can generate revenue for your family, for your kids".
He backed an untested entrepreneur, Dhirubhai Ambani, who was aiming to transform something called Reliance Industries by such crazy means as flying in machinery to jump-start a factory.
Four main areas need particular attention: culture, products, funding and the cost of operations.The cultural challenge is to transform something that started as charity into a proper business.
The other houses had been fixed up, but the one in Edgemont won them over in part because it needed work and they wanted to transform something.
A small scallop of ham and a half-dozen leaves of tarragon also helped to transform something that might have been banal into a work of aspic art.
Is it possible, to transform something that is perceived and experienced as endlessly changing?
"What they have is so special," Suda said, "to transform something so negative into something positive".
It's a thrill, he says, to transform something old into something new.
That idea of the accidental — how one seemingly random gesture can utterly transform something — comes up frequently.
