A collective led by author and Living Architecture founder Alain de Botton has attacked the "dispiriting, chaotic and distasteful" architecture of urban environments in an essay entitled Why is the Modern World So Ugly"
The article published on The School of Life organisation's website states that our ancestors would be shocked at the "horrors" of modern architecture.
"One of the great generalisations we can make about the modern world is that it is, to an extraordinary degree, an ugly world," said the essay, which was anonymously written by a member of De Botton's The School of Life collective.
"If we were to show an ancestor from 250 years ago around our cities and suburbs, they would be amazed at our technology, impressed by our wealth, stunned by our medical advances ? and shocked and disbelieving at the horrors we had managed to build," continued the article. "Societies that are, in most respects, hugely more advanced than those of the past have managed to construct urban environments more dispiriting, chaotic and distasteful than anything humanity has ever known."
"The very word beauty became taboo"
The School of Life is an organisation that aims to help people live fulfilling lives. It was founded by Swiss author De Botton, who is also its chairperson.
De Botton has written numerous books including The Architecture of Happiness and presented the television series The Perfect Home. He is also the f...