Carbuncle Cup 2011 Winners, Shortlist, British Ugly Buildings, Architects, Prize, Projects, UK Bad Design News
Carbuncle Cup 2010 Winner
UK Architecture Awards
2 Sep 2011
Carbuncle Cup 2011 : MediaCityUK
MediaCityUK is located in Salford, north west England
image from architects office
Media CityUK Building
Carbuncle Cup 2011 Winner
The £600 m media hub in Salford, the new home for BBC North. “How uncreative can a “Creative Quarter” be? And which truly creative person would ever want to work in such a place?” asked Guardian critic and Carbuncle Cup judge Jonathan Glancey.
Other contenders were One Hyde Park in London by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, the Museum of Liverpool by 3XN and AEW, and Newport railway station in South Wales by Nicholas Grimshaw and Atkins.
The new Museum of Liverpool was apparently the runner-up
12 Aug 2010
Carbuncle Cup 2010 Winners News
The building chosen for the award that “highlights the worst examples of architecture in the UK”:
Strata Tower, London
picture © Nick Weall
In a bumper year for Carbuncle Cup nominations, BFLS’ tower in Elephant & Castle beat all the competition with its “Philishave stylings” and “services to greenwash, urban impropriety and sheer breakfast- extracting ugliness” 2009 – Liverpool Ferry Terminal – judge Sean Griffiths of architecture practice FAT explained that it wasn’t just Hamilton Architects’ derivative design that won it the infamous prize – “Third-rate Zaha Hadid, a crude, jazzy-angled lump of crap, a terrible example of an architecturally illiterate client trying to be groovy and getting it so, so wrong, like a 50-year-old making a fashion faux pas in a disco.” – but also its location on Liverpool’s waterfront, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
23 Jul 2010
Carbuncle Cup 2010 Shortlist
Six buildings have been chosen for an award that highlights the worst examples of architecture in the UK.
This British bad architecture award, run by Building Design, aims to draw attention to buildings constructed in the last 12 months that most offend the aesthetic sensibilities of passersby.
Over 30 suggestions for the prize were received. The shortlist is published to coincide with the Stirling Prize shortlist annoucement.
Strata Tower, London:
picture © Nick Weall
Two London buildings feature in the shortlist, the first of which is Strata Tower (photo above) in Elephant and Castle, the first skyscraper to have wind turbines built into its design. The building’s design has been nicknamed ‘Electric Razor’, ‘Ladyshaver’ and ‘Three Eyed Satanic Owl’.
The Georgian Group described London’s tallest residential building, at 147 metres, as “pure visual grotesqueness” when it submitted it for consideration.
Bézier Apartments, London:
photo © Nick Weall
The second building nominated fo the Cup in the capital was the Bézier Apartments (photo above), near Old Street, which was accused of being shaped like a bum.
Birmingham’s The Cube, a 23-floor building with a glass-panelled roof, was put forward because of its “clunky windows”, “inelegant vents” and gold colour, which was meant as a nod to its location in the city’s jewellery quarter.
In Scotland the memorial centre for the Scottish poet Robert Burns in Kilmarnock was shortlisted for the Cup.
In Northern Ireland the St Anne’s Square development in Belfast made the shortlist.
Finally the Haymarket Hub in Newcastle also made the Carbuncle Cup shortlist.
The winner of the Carbuncle Cup will be announced on 27 Aug 2010.
The Carbuncle Cup prize takes its name from a 1984 speech by Prince Charles in which he described a proposed extension to the National Gallery in London as a “monstrous carbuncle”.
Location: UK
Architecture Awards
Contemporary Architecture Prizes
World Architecture Festival Awards
Carbuncle Awards – Scotland, run by the Carnyx Group
British Building Designs
English Architecture
New English Architectural Designs : current, chronological list
Stanyard’s Cottage, Surrey, southeast England
Design: Alter & Company
photograph : Jim Stephenson
Stanyard’s Cottage in Surrey
Kite House, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, Southern England
Design: AR Design Studio, Architects
picture courtesy of architects office
House on River Avon
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