Prince of Wales slams building designs

LONDON, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Britain's Prince Charles has criticized modern buildings as "energy-guzzling glass boxes" that will be old and tired within decades.

Speaking at a meeting of the Institute of Civil Engineers, the prince of Wales said glass, steel and concrete structures are not sustainably produced, The Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

"Many noted architects, some of them very well known Modernists, are now openly talking about the need to move away from creating enormous, energy-guzzling glass boxes and towards a more environmentally sensible approach," he said.

Engineering will be in the "front line" of coping with climate change and the growing human population by creating buildings that use less energy and carbon, he said.

"We have, by default, engineered something of a looming disaster and we need all the ingenuity we can muster to pull back from it.

"I'm afraid if a building is of a fashionable design today it almost inevitably condemns it very quickly to becoming unfashionable -- tired looking, outdated, no longer 'contemporary.' And so, within 30 or 40 years, they are ripe for demolition and replacement," the prince said.