What could account for ill-built Laputan houses despite the people's mathematical genius?

Gulliver describes the houses in Laputa as “very ill built.” The walls are beveled and lack right angles. This is in spite of the Laputan’s great mathematical expertise. For instance, their phraseology is built on ideas from the sciences and music. Praises, for example, are described using geometrical shapes or musical words; the kitchen of the Laputan King is equipped with a great variety of mathematical and musical instruments. In fact, when Gulliver first meets the king, the latter is highly engrossed in solving a mathematical problem so that he is unable to immediately attend to Gulliver until about an hour later. Even the Laputan meals are cut into geometrical shapes—pieces of mutton are cut out into equilateral triangles, and puddings are prepared in cycloid forms.
Gulliver attributes the poor Laputan architecture to the fact that the people are contemptuous of practical geometry. Also, although very good at solving mathematical problems on paper, the Laputans are generally “clumsy, awkward, and unhandy” people. This hampers their efforts in using mathematical theory in practical applications such as house building. Gulliver further explains that the Laputans possess poor reasoning skills so that they have a low capacity for creating or inventing new things. Clearly, had they had a greater interest in practical mathematics and a dexterity in manual practical work, they would have been able to build better houses.