The Prince suggested that without proper controls towns and cities across the world could encroach on rural areas “on a vast scale”.
He added that more thought for the future was needed to avoid “mass urbanisation”.
Speaking to former students from the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, he said: “The greatest challenge is mass urbanisation on a vast scale, without any proper thought to what the future will hold.”
The comments of the heir to the throne, who has repeatedly spoken out on architectural and developmental issues, echoed those of one of his highest profile architectural critics, Lord Rogers of Riverside.
This month, the architect warned that the reform of British planning legislation, which is designed to boost economic growth, could lead to Los Angeles style urban spreal that would destroy the Green Belt.
The Daily Telegraph has launched a campaign called Hands Off Our Land, urging ministers to rethink the draft National Planning Policy Framework, which distils 1,300 pages of planning guidance into just 52. It reccomends a “presumption in favour of sustainable development” which has concerned many.
Alumni from the Prince’s foundation are helping to design the latest phase of his model village, Poundbury in Dorset.
The Prince is a champion of traditional architectural styles over modernist designs and has tried to implement his ideas in Poundbury, which forms an extension to Dorchester.
In his speech at the foundation's offices in Shoreditch, east London, he defended the project describing the economic benefits it had brought to the area.
He said that despite the "brick bats" he had faced, businesses were starting up and a survey commissioned last year had stated Poundbury had contributed more than £800 million to the local economy.
The Prince is the second high-profile member of the Royal family this week to question what the government views as acceptable development.
The Duke of Edinburgh described the policy to increase the number of wind turbines throughout Britain’s countryside as “an absolute disgrace”.
This week, a report from the think tank Policy Exchange, which is close to David Cameron, concluded that developers should be allowed to build on protected green belt land if local people agree.
It also recommended that all building on brownfield or previously developed sites should be allowed unless more than 50 per cent of people living nearby object.
