Frank Lloyd Wright was never unsure of the importance of culture. Lack of it, he said, 'means what it has always meant: ignoble civilisation and therefore imminent downfall'.
So one wonders what the architect, interior designer and writer would have thought about the sometimes stunning - but more often pedestrian - architecture that collectively fills Hong Kong's skyline.
While they serve the gods of finance and markets well, do they serve to nourish our noble inner self? Two prominent international architects - Germany's Ascan Mergenthaler and Japan's Kengo Kuma - will be in Hong Kong next week, along with museum curator Corinna Roesner, to discuss Culture and the City during Business of Design Week (BODW), which runs from Monday to Saturday. With the West Kowloon Cultural District project and the redevelopment of the Central Police Station imminent, the artistic merit of our city landscape has become a hotly debated issue and will be discussed at the event.
Now in its ninth year, BODW, whose partner country in 2010 is Japan, has assembled designers, architects, fashion personalities, creative visionaries and executives from top international brands to share their ideas, thoughts and insights. The aim is to encourage businesses to focus on the relationship between design and business, something that permeates debate about West Kowloon and the Central Police Station.
Mergenthaler, senior partner of Herzog & de Meuron, whose works include Beijing's National Stadium, says that although Hong Kong's eclectic mixture of high-rise buildings, rural villages and country parks make for an exciting cityscape, the cultural element is somewhat missing. 'But I think what is missing is culture, or the visibility of culture through architecture,' he says. 'Culture and architecture are important to make a city complete.'
When Mergenthaler refers to culture, he means everything from art galleries and design to performing arts and, in Hong Kong's case, even food and shopping.