The Qatar royal family has dismissed a plea by Prince Charles to change the design of a building project in the heart of London.
Prince Charles wrote to Qatar’s emir personally asking him to change the modernist architecture of the residential development because it did not fit in with the surrounding buildings.
The project for 550 apartments in a series of glass and steel towers was created by Lord Richard Rogers on the site of the old Chelsea Barracks.
But, Qatari Diar, the country’s master-developer owned by the royal family, has rejected the request saying it had “wholehearted commitment” to the Rogers design.
Buildings close to the development’s site include the Royal Hospital, designed in the 17th century by Sir Christopher Wren.
A spokesman for the Duke of Westminster said current plans were “monotonous, repetitive, totally out of scale and out of context”.