Financial Crisis cools the "Wow!" in Architecture.

Rendering, Burj Tower, Dubai

UK architect, David Chipperfield, a former Harvard University visiting professor has an explanation for the iconic-building frenzy. Architects, he says, are under pressure to deliver structures with "the `wow' factor'' that will attract funds and visitors. While the search for new form has been "liberating for the profession,'' it also `"produces a lot of rubbish,'' he says bluntly..."It's an architecture of excess, a consequence of there being too much money around,'' says the British architect. "At a time when people are worried about other things, those (projects) become really irritating, and probably less relevant. So I think we will see a mood shift -- a certain sensibility coming back.''

Here's his interview in Bloomberg.com.