[Closed] It's Elfin's Tuesday Architectural Appreciation thread! Hatred and Disgust

...it's dark, dingy and miserable. Not a good advert for Birmingham, is it?

Erm.....

Cumbernauld town centre looks pretty grim, never been, funniliy enough..

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The University of Bristol's Stundent's Union. A more hateful, bland concrete monstrosity I have yet to find. That's pretty much the only picture of it on Google Images, perhaps the Uni knows how terrible it is and has attempted to censor it. Made worse by the fact that the University owns many fanstastic buildings and grounds.

I looked at buying a flat across the road but decided I'd rather rub salt into open wounds than wake up looking at that.

Nice one Fred! Let me kick off with this monstrosity:

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The Piccadilly Hotel. I loath it! A concrete abomination which casts its vile angular shadow over the Gardens, and pollutes the gorgeous facades opposite it with its horrendous presence. Unbelievably, it's a listed building! 😯

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Hateful, shambolic - the Rotunda in B'ham.

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*dry vom's*

Look at the state of this "community facility" in Swinton, Salford. Like a busted chest of drawers.

Brasenose College...

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Bangor is grim enough, without this monstrosity

[url= http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2516/3687281487_b6d545aef9.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2516/3687281487_b6d545aef9.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

Brambell Building

Fond memories of some of the classes in there though.

I am in the mood for venting architectural spleen:

I give you the Scottish Parliament building. WTF?

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thanks for the tip!

You can cover the surrounding areas with all the glass and steel you like, but at the heart of it, there's still this enormous festering wart

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Its even the same colour as pus.

I would personally like to thank the IRA terrorists who destroyed the Arndale Centre. But, the bomb just wasn't quite big enough to take this out too. Shame really

I give you B'Ham central library. WTF?

Scottish Parliament Building I think you mean?

I'm warming to my theme too Derek. And this *ing place. Christ I hate it and everything it represents! But particularly, I HATE the way it looks

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Oh look! Its 1988 again, isn't it? Its like pair of *ing shoulder pads. Vile, garish, crass and vulgar. Inside its even worse!

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Mmmmmmmmmm. Tasteful!

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old cooncil HQ aberdeen

New building at a cost of a gazillion pounds to the local tax payer.

Fawley Oil refinery, and it stinks
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TriCorn Center in P'mth, thankfully pulled down now.
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UEA Accomodation block, still looks rubbish all these years later.
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H*BC Building in Sotty, hurl.
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I was just perusing a Wikipedia page on Brutalist Architecture when Elfin popped up with this.

Thanks - I think.

The Tower Thistle hotel, absolute eyesore & spoils the surrounding area.
It's just as grim inside too.

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The Shard. Impressive engineering no doubt, butwhen seen in the flesh it looks damn ugly, dirty and dated with all that glass.

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The new Royal London Hospital. Can you see it?

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M2 building, Tokyo:
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Kosovo Library:
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This is suppopsed to be the way forward. The contempary yet vast and repugnant Beetham Tower in Deansgate Manchester.

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It was Binnerses idea!

It was him sir, he made me do it. 😥

Robin Hood Gardens, Poplar east London; there were attempts to have it listed by a bunch of architects, designers, historians etc basically no-one who actually had to live in the dump. There was a docu on it, and one scene where an actual resident challenges an architect bod to swap homes if he felt so strongly about it.

The architect din't feel that strongly about it. Surprise surprise...

A perfect example of something designed without much idea of the genuine needs of residents or the effect such poor planning has on people:

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Millgarth Nick, Leeds. Spent many a night there... 🙁

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Crawley College. The Lubyanka of ac.uk's...

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County Mall, Crawley. Looks like Duplo, but nowhere near as much fun. Oh well, I suppose it's what's on the inside that counts...

Oh. Chavs....

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I saw that programme on Robin Hood Gardens.

It reminds me of footage I've seen of Pripyat.

GTDave; I hear you on the Tower Hotel; how on Earth anyone was allowed to build that thing where they did, is beyond me. Dwarfs and dominates the Tower of London. Totally wrong and needs knocking down.

With you also on the new London Hostpital, but as for the Shard, well, I think it'll look very impressive and be an excellent 'skyscraper'. Unlike this nastiness, theHeron Tower on Bishopsgate:

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Ruins the skyline that was dominated by the NatWest tower and the Gherkin, which are two architecturally outstanding buildings. The Heron tower was meant to be more swoopy and elegant, but I think they then ran out of money or something so built that carbuncle instead. It's a terrible shame.

I give you the Sheffield "Egg Box". Although thankfully this affront to the senses was actually pulled down a few years ago:
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Cynical-Al; My grandad was the Clerk of Works on Cumbernauld....all of it. 😆

My contribution;
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/72151694@N00/5561350126/ ]Tayside house Dundee[/url]

When I was a kid my Mum used to get her fruit and veg from the market this replaced,Tayside house; seat of our Lords and Masters.

St James centre Edinburgh - just a hideous monstrosity and so out of keeping
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dominates the skyline
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Well I'm just disappointed no one has posted the obvious joke yet.

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Client - Draw m a box and stick some windows in it, then draw me a triangle atrium, make sure to give it glass sliding doors and make the place not only look cold, but feel cold too.
Architect - Righty Ho, I give you Watford Gap M'way Services and don't you worry Mr Client, I've been able to replicate this piece of s*ite all over the country for you.
Client - excellent, heres your fee, all £9.10 of it and I'll take that back off you for the coffee you've just had in our "seating area"

Well I'm just disappointed no one has posted the obvious joke yet.

What's that then? I thought Derek Starbelly had actually; the Scottish Parliament. Proposed cost of something like what, £40 million, ended up costing how much? £400+ million???

It's a joke, for sure, just not a very funny one.... 🙁

Tamworth police station because not only is it a bit of an eye sore but I have spent far too many nights in the cells...

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Maxwelltown multis in Dundee
[img] http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/images/l/1141779/ [/img]

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Oh, guess what
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wooohoo indeed
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Slightly OT, but between towers 1 and 2, amnd 3 and 4, there are small two storey buildings, don't know what they are but they're still there and intact (minus some glass)

A controversial one…

Magnificent, but at the same time a monstrously expensive mess.

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GTDave; I hear you on the Tower Hotel; how on Earth anyone was allowed to build that thing where they did, is beyond me. Dwarfs and dominates the Tower of London. Totally wrong and needs knocking down.

I fully agree with this.

Birmingham Central Library.
Thank Christ its going.
God awful place.
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Southampton City Center

City Planner - Hello Mr newly qualified Architect of the 1960's, I'd like a s*ite design for all our loverly Town and City centers, can you please disregard anything you'e learned over your time at College and just get a set square out and a 2B pencil. It must be boxy, it simply must be damn ugly and it simply must not envolke a feeling of anyone staying around t enjoy themselves, we can't have that now can we..
Newly Qualified Architect of the 1960's - Whooo hooo Man look what I've done, I've ruined our heritage and taken the soul out of our once beautiful Cities and Towns, I'm most proud Man, most proud.
City Planner - Well done, heres the £9bn we owe you, don't spend it all on Dope will you, save some for "you know who" know won't you.
Newly Qualified Architect of the 1960's - Ahhh People will remember me for ever, I'm so proud of myself.

I give you the Sheffield "Egg Box". Although thankfully this affront to the senses was actually pulled down a few years ago:

I seem to remember that building being destroyed by a 40kiloton nuke in Threads 😮

I can feel the bitterness and anger oozing out of you, bikebouy. 😀

Keep the hate flowing, people....

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How do I post a picture of the whole of Slough?

Anyway, for personal reasons, I would like to present a side view of Brunel University library. I hate it. I hate the way it is "sun-bleached bone" colour during the summer and "runny turd" colour when it rains. I hate the wood-grain effect poured concrete of it.

The _only_ redeeming thing about it is that it starred (briefly) in "A Clockwork Orange"

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Look at it... barely 35 years old and already crumbling.

I actually quite like the scottish parliament building - the cost over run is nowt to do with its merit as a bit of archtecture. Lots of politics around its commisioning.

at least its not a bland concrete box and edinburgh has quite enough uninspired modern architecture and duff pastiche "faux olde" architecture

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Wrexham police station, Horrible.

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And why are all our new police stations identical. At the top is Little Hulton copshop, Salford. The bottom pic shows progress - Pendleton police staion again in Salford. And below; Swinton police station

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I can kinda get the desire for a service identity but make it a bloody good one.

Now you see I actually quite like some of those...

I wonder how much I could hate a library, whatever it looked like

Shambles Square in Manchester before the IRA refurbished it with a truck full of explosives.

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Much better now they have moved the pubs to a better location.

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I seem to remember that building being destroyed by a 40kiloton nuke in Threads

True. Sadly, despite this, it remained standing for about 20 years after the big-screen destruction.

Random factoid of the day: My one and only (to date) film role is in Threads. When the bomb goes off and everyone runs away screaming, I'm the toddler in the pram being pushed away from the town hall. Actually, it might be WHSmiths.

Actually, I thnk that 1 Canary Wharf and The Shard (even more when it's finished) are really beautiful, whatever their purpose.

This, on the other hand...

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Can I nominate an entire area?

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Salford. With this oozing sore at its 'heart'

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Nuke the entire place from Orbit. A more drab and depressing collection of decaying concrete it is difficult to imagine. Its what I imagine a siberian gulag would be like. But with more drugs and traccy bottoms

I quite like 50s/60s buildings and particularly Brutalist ones - but then I know why they're called Brutalist... 😉
For a rather more in depth study of crap buildings feast your eyes at Owen Hatherley's sublime [url= http://badbritisharchitecture.blogspot.com/ ]Bad British Architecture blog[/url]

The Florey Building, Oxford. I had the "pleasure" of living in this for a year...

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Ooh, talking of shopping centres (like Salford ^^)

This place:

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Elephant and Castle, London. A truly awful abomination of 1950's concrete, a huge shopping centre containing not a lot, god-awful tenement flats, railway arches, 2 massive roundabouts, underpass systems and a Tube station that smell of piss and last time they attempted to make the place look nice they painted it bright pink, just to make the eyesore really stand out. It's in the process of being completely redone although I suspect the only way of improving it is with a large amount of high explosive...

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😉

Good thread this week, agree on Salford (the shopping "city" is a dump, why do they need to advertise it with massive red letters?) and GMP police stations. Oh and the Arndale.

I'd like to propose the complete and utter distruction of Leigh please. Most of the nicer buildings have already gone, so we might as well just flatten the place. Preferably with the inhabitants still inside.

Starting with the library..

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Then moving onto Market Street, home of various pound shops, a bookies and a cash generator.

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Don't break wind near this sign, it's only bluetacked on.. Pig Ugly town, pig ugly sign..

&

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European Architect draws inspiration from other pig ugly buildings.. We're not the only ones to fall foul of the blind Etcha Sketch weilding skool of design.. There all over Europe these things..
This ones in Cologne.

Another place that needs nuking from orbit? Stockport

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What an armpit of a place. The only decent piece of architecture is the huge railway viaduct leading to Manchester

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Right next to Liverpools Famous waterfront... awful

While Leigh's being cleared, any spare TNT for Farnworth?

i want to post a pic of Beijing... its all gross

I'm loving the Bile..

LOL

timc - I'm always staggered that they were able to build that abomination next to such architectural majesty. But they haven't learnt their lesson. They're on about encroaching on the Graces with another set of modernist abominations

Looks great. I'm sure it'll improve things for the better. It all looks perfectly in keeping:

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🙄

Stockport Town centre is a lot nicer than you think. Admittedly the motorway bit is a hell hole, as is the shopping centre bit, but the old streets and Market Place are Victorian gems, as is the Robbie's brewery - it looks like Willy Wonka's factory, right in the centre of town. No doubt there are loads of Oompa Loompas making the beer. Well, I'd suspect they would be if they weren't all hanging around Piccadilly Gardens.

To be honest, the majority of Manchester city centre is horrendous. Apart from the Town Hall and Court it looks like a bigger version of Peterlee.

😆

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Can we just flatten some of Stockport and make the A6 dual carriageway then? Worst thing about going to the Castleton and Hope bits of the Peak are having to drive through Stockport to get there..

My one and only (to date) film role is in Threads

Wow... [i]still[/i] one of the most terrifying films ever made.

Back OT: Bristol's harbourside flats - an object lesson in how to ruin an interesting location.

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It's brand spanking new and looked better with the scaffolding on. Ladies and gentlemen I give you the Hepworth in Wakefield. Will they never learn.

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just awful

Back OT: Bristol's harbourside flats - an object lesson in how to ruin an interesting location.

So true - how they thought what looks like a cheap Benidorm rat warren hotel could be a good thing to put there is beyond me and what a suprise, it's still largely empty...

Colston Tower in Bristol is fugly too

[img] http://commercialsearch.knightfrank.co.uk/dynamic/image/835699?x=300 [/img]

this thread is useless without pictures (of Milton Keynes)

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@binners, yes i have seen the designs!

I actually live in one of the new build high rise apartments in Princes dock, town, basically its the best flat you can get city centre on my budget & i actually have a view of the desertered docks to the North. The building actually has great views & is lovely inside but as a piece of architecture, its pretty crap!

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Apart from that big x60 storey building, I would welcome investment in the area, I think its far enough away from the 3 graces not to cause to much of an intrusion, plus the Sand castle & new L1 buildings already surround the 3 Graces with Horrid modern Architecture

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Bristol Royal Infirmary - its as grim inside as well. Amazing anyone gets better there.

I'm pleased you put up the Bristol docks - they're destined to become the social housing of 2020 I reckon. And just opposite are some hideous flats that started falling down after ooh, at most 5 years. I must find a photo.

Come on people, that's it; let the hatred course through your veins....

News International plant, Wapping. No need to say any more:

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Sun Alliance brought the land around this church:

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knocked down the church, left the spire and built this around it:

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(There was an issue with the church needing tonnes of money for restoration, but I know which view I prefer!)

Yer average new house:
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Apex Plaza nr Reading Station. Someones first attempt with an out of date CAD package. Drag and drop a few semi-circle windows and then render in pink to complete the look.

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Some pretty foul stuff going on there in Newcastle.

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Pretty much every single one of Stewart Milne's identikit monstrocities with which Aberdeen is so generously endowed.

Pictured is one of the less hideous.

I actually like Birmingham Library. As a kid we used to skateboard around the hollow interior and as an adult I always found the interior pretty cool as well as a treasure trove of books, newspapers and information of all kinds. The fact that it got up Prince Charles's elitist hooter makes it all the more appealing.

Elitism seems to run deep through this thread though. Don't see much hatred for the vast canon of neo classical ostentation, built largely on the back of exploitation. I could post some up but it would be quicker that everyone just googles the National Trust and fills their own boots.

It's pretty shallow to knock most of the stuff that's been blasted on here. Most of it was built in a hurry, at a time of economic hardship after the Luftwaffe had decided that we needed to re-plan our cities. Those buildings represent a new world and a people determined to get back to normal as quickly as possible after 6 years of trauma, heartache and deprevation.

Any one of those buildings says far more about the good of the human condition and of our heritage than any revolting stately home.

The University of Bristol's Stundent's Union. A more hateful, bland concrete monstrosity I have yet to find. That's pretty much the only picture of it on Google Images, perhaps the Uni knows how terrible it is and has attempted to censor it. Made worse by the fact that the University owns many fanstastic buildings and grounds.

I had my bike nicked from the underground carpark, though it did have a nice basement swimming pool when I was there.

corby bus station

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It's pretty shallow to knock most of the stuff that's been blasted on here. Most of it was built in a hurry, at a time of economic hardship after the Luftwaffe had decided that we needed to re-plan our cities. Those buildings represent a new world and a people determined to get back to normal as quickly as possible after 6 years of trauma, heartache and deprevation.

There's plenty of stuff posted here that was built during periods of great prosperity. I don't mind all Brutalist architecture, frinstance, but a building should be designed to be fit for purpose, and many of these really aren't. Poor design, shoddy workmanship, poor quality materials all combine to produce monstrous carbuncles we could well do without.

Any one of those buildings says far more about the good of the human condition and of our heritage than any revolting stately home.

OK then, go and live in one of them then. Go and live in something like Robin Hood Gardens then see how much you like that kind of architecture. Then come and talk to me about the 'Human Condition'.

Vulgar neoclassical stately homes, eh? Well, I've never found this lump at all architecturally interesting, in fact it's a proper eyesore tbh. And I'm not a fayn of what it represents either. I for one would be quite pleased to see it gone:

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It wasn't just the Germans that carpet bombed cities during the war you know.. We did a fair bit of that too.. Dusseldorf anyone?? Yet somehow European tower blocks seem to just fit better in larger open spaces in thier far better planned out cities than our carbuncles stuck in between teeny city/town centers.
As for stately homes etc. well some are rather pretty places, shame you have to pay to get in most of them, but at least they're open to the public these days..well some are unless you got through the back door that is.