The Future of Design & Architecture

German architect Christoph Ingenhoven says the attitude which defines modernism is against superfluous design and that many Asian cities are modernizing in all the wrong ways. “The most beautiful shapes are those that are balanced. … When it comes to the things we invent, it often seems that we have trouble steering clear of things that don’t make sense and from ornamentation. Granted, ornamentation does make things more acceptable at first in that it bridges something, such as a temporal or a functional distance. But you don’t need it. I think a paraglider is beautiful, or a glider or a sailboat in the America’s Cup. Even if you threatened to kill the people who design these things, you’d never be able to convince them to put anything unnecessary on board. Never, ever, ever.”