An interesting phenomenon has been taking place in contemporary art: sculpture tending to appropriate architecture’s resources for itself, in the same way that architecture becomes more and more sculptural, so much that there are cases when one is at a loss to decide whether something is a work of scupture or a work of architecture. An example is The Vessel, the ‘endless staircase’ that Thomas Heatherwick has built at Hudson Yards in New York City. This is a 45-meter-tall structure where 2,500 steps create a disturbing promenade through a sculpture (or function-free architecture) that, rather than expressing power, as stairs of olden times did, fosters public spirit.