The Globe and Mail

Toronto had never seen anything like it – a gigantic checkered box hoisted into the sky, balanced on a handful of gigantic spikes. Six years later, we are not only accustomed to the Sharp Centre for Design, designed by British architect Will Alsop, it has become the architectural benchmark against which a clutch of ambitious new projects are measured. And when Mr. Alsop was asked how we might make wider changes to Toronto's often scruffy urban fabric, he delivered something characteristically different. His confection of coloured geometry, with buildings growing out of the landscape – and seemingly each other – is what might happen, he suggests, if Toronto were to fling off its corset of planners, politicians and bureaucrats and live a little, removing all the planning rules and letting residents and developers rebuild at their pleasure. The fanciful picture sends the message that organic growth is more interesting than urban planning. In Mr. Alsop's words, “A carefully planned place usually lacks soul and results in people behaving badly.”