The Globe and Mail

Architect Hariri Pontarini

As the 21st century stops being new and gets seriously under way, it's looking increasingly as if curves, billows and twists will constitute our new millennium's signature style in residential skyscraper design. You don't have to look far to understand why. First, there is the everlasting tendency of people to get bored. In this case, some younger architects find themselves bored stiff with the last half-century's straight lines, endlessly repeated in structure after structure down to the present day. An entry-level architect recently described one of his boss's new projects to me as "just another dumb box." His attitude is hardly rare. Second, we have to thank new imaging technologies — I am thinking here especially of the popular Computer-Aided Three-dimensional Interactive Application, or CATIA — that enables designers to model architectural forms freely in the round, then translate their ideas into extraordinarily precise engineering sketches. (CATIA is also used for designing aircraft, submarines and other large objects that aren't all about straight lines.)