Why ugly buildings are bad for the environment

When I lived in Stoke on Trent, there was a notorious 18 storey building in the town centre that was known locally as ‘Gotham City’. It was built for the council in 1973 and it never quite worked. It had ‘sick building syndrome‘ and was a miserable place to work. The council occupied it for 20 years, and then it sat empty and derelict for a decade. Unity House, as it was officially called, stood for a grand total of 32 years before it was torn down.

Meanwhile, the old Stoke on Trent Town Hal...