Yet, on closer inspection, the contradictions may be more superficial than fundamental. Indeed, Pelli's cultural origins should have precluded him from becoming the signature artist of Malaysia's national monument, but they did not. His design has elements of Islamic architecture identifiable with our country. The other architects' designs looked as if they could be built anywhere. Mr Pelli's design could be no other place but Kuala Lumpur.
Authenticity is obviously a very nebulous notion.
The contradictions apparent with the Petronas Towers complex, therefore, present an interesting philosophical challenge for the future of Islamic identity and Muslim social development. The importance of architecture is not an abstract theoretical issue. Its cost is too great, its symbolism too profound. Ismail Serageldin, an Egyptian architect and vice-president of the World Bank, has argued for the motivating power of architectural construction. The challenge for architecture is to transcend the conventional and create the new.