AUTHOR and philosopher Alain de Botton has defended his comments about Brisbane being ugly following a public backlash.

De Botton was criticised on Friday for a post on his website The Philosophers’ Mail that singled out Brisbane as one of the world’s ugly cities and an example of “chaotic ugliness”.

“No one looks at the waterfront of Brisbane, the capital of the Australian state of Queensland, and feels deeply moved by the grace and sweetness of the scene,” de Botton said in the post

“While most people find the centre of Paris wonderful and others will delight in the winding streets of Siena, no one on the planet responds deeply to the brutal cross city expressway and chunky stained brown office blocks of the city.”

The problem, de Botton says, is that people have accepted that everyone will have different views of what is beautiful or ugly.

“We have talked ourselves into the belief that taste is always relative,” de Botton says.

“So even though almost everyone on the planet thinks that either Siena or Paris is delightful and everyone thinks that Brisbane is a bit of a mess, we don’t dare to speak.”

Unfortunately, readers quickly noticed that de Botton accidentally used a photograph of Ipswich to illustrate how ugly Brisbane was.

In a tweet, de Botton also linked to his story with the comment “why Brisbane is the ugliest city in Australia” but deleted this as well as a Facebook post that said the same thing.

The Swiss-born de Botton was in Brisbane for a talk on Friday about his latest book about the media, during which he said he did think the city was beautiful.

“I want to apologise to the good people of Brisbane. I have been made to see the error of my ways. Your city is beautiful,” de Botton said.

“I had declared Brisbane not just the ugliest city but apparently the ugliest city in the world.

“Sorry to disappoint people, but I said absolutely no such thing, and it just shows the power of the news to instil a narrative which then becomes lodged in people’s minds.”

In an interview with The Courier Mail, de Botton said certain vistas of Brisbane, such as those in central Brisbane on the waterfront, might qualify as ugly, but this was not to say that every street was ugly.

“That part of Brisbane has been taken over by property developers who have been allowed to run riot for the sake of money,” de Botton.

He said that he did not blame property developers for trying to make money but local government in Brisbane had been unable to find a response to their proposals.

“They’ve created something in my mind that is not beautiful and partly it’s because it’s so chaotic.”

De Botton’s article divided the public with many agreeing but many others defending the city, including Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk.

“GQ Magazine and Lonely Planet got it right when they said that Brisbane is the ‘hippest’ city in Australia,” Cr Quirk said.

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@alaindebotton Brisbane is a beutifull city maybe you just don't know which context to enjoy it in.. — Batchelo (@DjBatchelo) March 28, 2014

Haha yep. Bloody awful place. RT “@alaindebotton: Why Brisbane is the ugliest city in Australia: http://t.co/QKRa7f4ccj @bris_powerhouse” — Boydlee (@boydleep) March 27, 2014

Ouch! That's tough! "@alaindebotton: Why Brisbane is the ugliest city in Australia: http://t.co/Mhh6kxOyZC" — Georgie (@GWForce) March 27, 2014

In his article, de Botton blamed the situation on planning restrictions in Brisbane, which focused on health and safety issues such as the distance between street lights, or how tall a building should be, but nothing about whether it should be beautiful, noble, grand or elegant.

“People who have no interest whatsoever in making any city even remotely beautiful or dignified can get away with some truly terrible construction projects free of any fear of being criticised,” he said.

“And that’s how modern Brisbane comes to look the way it does.”

De Botton, who has written a book called The Architecture of Happiness, said that cities which were beautiful like Siena, Paris, Bath and Edinburgh, all had one thing in common.

“In each case the planners in the past hit upon a pretty good basic model and imposed it widely. It wasn’t the same model. But they were all good enough.

“But in Brisbane - and a lot of other modern cities - there was a fatal refusal to select any model at all. So the result is chaotic ugliness - which no one likes.”

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