British designer Thomas Heatherwick has railed against the "characterless buildings" he believes dominate new urban developments and called for architecture with more "emotion" in a talk at Singapore Design Week.
"I want to talk about streets with the new buildings on and the problem that we all know exists in our towns and cities around the world ? that we're increasingly surrounded by characterless buildings," Heatherwick said.
"I believe we're living through an epidemic of boringness. Everywhere is the same ? dull, flat, shiny, straight, inhuman." "Most of the time, buildings leave us feeling indifferent"
Heatherwick made the remarks in the opening of a talk he gave yesterday at the Design Futures Symposium, which is part of Singapore Design Week.
In the talk, Heatherwick criticised modern buildings for being sterile and dull, calling for architecture that elicits a stronger emotional response.
"I've been told so many times that form should follow function, meaning that if I work out with my team how mechanically a building should go together that, somehow, the outcome will be great," Heatherwick said.
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