Quote Horatio Yed="Horatio Yed"completely agree with that, it's exactly what i think.'"
Yup, me too.
The buildings in HK mentioned in earlier posts don't do it for me either, they lack style and imagination.
If I may put aside the politics of buildings and their purpose, I'd like to mention the Gherkin, which to me is a superbly elegant blend of engineering and aesthetics ... like a huge Faberge egg from a distance when it glitters in the daylight and, as you approach, it seems to get smaller and the shape is such that, when you arrive next to it and look up, its height tapers out of sight so you don't see all of it and it doesn't dominate from street level.
The best modern building in The City, in my opinion.
One of the most shouty-but-boring examples has to be No.1. Poultry which is basically a meretricious layer cake of dressed stone wrapped around the same old, same old, style of ferro-concrete skeleton.
When you demolish listed Victorian buildings (as was done in this case), it should only be justified if what you put there next is better ... and it simply isn't.
The harsh brutal nature of the Barbican (even though I hate the whole idea of brutalism and still believe it was a misconception) and the South Bank centre, did at least have [uan idea[/u behind them which is exactly what No 1 Poultry lacks, it is like a little girl wearing all her mother's make-up.