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The Prince made his comments in a speech in which he set out his vision for the future of London's architecture. He hinted that such a policy might rule out the construction of towers exclusively devoted to commercial needs in the City, noting: "The City of London is, without doubt, a hugely successful financial centre – but it is a social disaster."

Prince Charles, who was speaking at the ºÚ¶´ÉçÇø for the 21st Century conference in London, also called for a reduction in the number of skyscraper projects, and said those that were built should not break up skylines.

Lord Foster, who also spoke at the conference, explained his ideas for improving the safety of tall buildings in the wake of the USA. He rejected the claim that these terrorist onslaughts undermined the case for tall buildings, arguing that they underlined the need for innovative design.

He said his practice was working with engineer Arup on a design for safer structures and that they were experimenting with ways of vacating tall structures. These included providing helicopter landing pads and creating stairwells at the corners of buildings rather than at their centres to increase the number of escape options.

The City is a hugely successful financial centre but it is a social disaster

Prince Charles

Foster also suggested that tall buildings could be connected by footbridges to other skyscrapers. He observed: "We can look to the example of Hollywood and films such as Metropolis for a futuristic interpretation of tall structures."

In his contribution, the prince emphasised that tall buildings should not be dedicated simply to meeting commercial needs, as this meant that they could not be sustainable.