"So, why did buildings become so boring? Well, you could pinpoint it back to the 1984 Property Developer Convention that took place on the shores of Lac-Misère on the border between Scotland and France, and was mostly attended by accountants. The event was brought into being as a reaction to all the fun stuff that post-modernism was coming up with, with all its unnecessary features that served no efficient purpose and was eating into profits. There was a general unease among developers that the whole form-follows-function thing wasn't being adhered to so much anymore, and Joe Public was finding enjoyment and a feeling of well-being in the built environment again. That really wouldn't do. And the main players of the event, Jean-Claude Padejois, Professor Dr. Spielfederer, and the Japanese titan Hideki Tanoshikunai, were on full charge to having their profitable way. The main proposed approach was to proceed with the dazzling of people's rational minds with ever more audacious engineering feats, to make your average punter feel hopelessly out of touch for not feeling well surrounded by flat grey walls, and to promote buildings with all the soul squeezed out like a pressed duck. An amendment was also made to the standard IQ test of the authoritative Panzeranzi IQ Institute that would give bonus points to those who indicated that they appreciated minimalism and black roll-neck sweaters. This would produce the effect of maximising land space and therefore profit, along with demoralising the poor masses who would have to occupy such dreary spaces. Professor Dr. Spielfederer wanted to even go as far as pushing the cube form as the only form for all future buildings in honour of his own mother's heavily gelled flat-top haircut and irresponsible shoulder pads. A challenge to all this responsible, sensible thinking arrived in the form of Agnes Dobostorter in her purple airship, her preferred mode of transportation. Tagging along was that great designer of fish-shaped buildings, Merton Verschnerklung III. Madame Dobostorter was one of these annoying types of architects who insisted on designing those unnecessarily joyful, stimulating, inefficient buildings, incorporating all that fussy greenery, and that uplifted people made them feel instantly at home and ran over budget every time. She maintained that she channeled all of her designs from an alien called Skolnok, and hijacked the serious moment of the conference by landing on the glass atrium roof of the event venue and abseiling down a glittery purple velvet rope infested with Christmas lights. After two days of bickering between the opposing sides, it was decided that the matter would be settled by duel. This was only halted moments before someone got seriously hurt in the name of property development when her professor, Dr. Spielverderbe, accused Dobostorter of enlisting help from the alien Skolnok, in whom, of course, he resolutely didn't believe. Surprisingly, this objection was upheld by the duel master. Much dismayed, Madame Dobostorter flew off into the sunset. And the rest, as they say, is history."