Worst building in UK

@jackthedog – far more eloquently put than I could manage!

What I find incongruous with Brits is that inside our homes we apparently aspire to light and space and open plan (viz all the Victorian terraces knocked through from front to back), and yet are too scared that the outside won;t look like everything always has.

This mock victorian rubbish we’ve littered our land and poisoned our culture with since the 90s

Speaking to my parents and in-laws (all boomers), and the idea when they were young of buying Victorian housing is anathema because it was old, and tired and represented the past and not the future. Now they’ve become more conservative as they’ve aged, they and their offspring have lost their more youthful view and entrenched themselves and everyone else in some facade (and charade) based on principles no-one actually seems to want.

OMITN (lives in a 60s bungalow and is planning on making it ever more light and airy)

These flats in Southampton are supposed to be, and I quote, “A upside down spaceship.”

Glad someone mentioned Brunel Uni.

if not already mentioned…
half of the homes on Grand Desgins. Especially that Mill that should have been demolished. And all the fugly cubic box houses.

Another vote for the Beetham Tower. Just bland, dull and ugly for something that was billed as a “landmark” building for Manchester. The architect Ian Simpson is the son of a friend of my dads and his fee involved getting the penthouse suite. (At least he can’t see the bloody thing from there I suppose).

He grew up in Heywood where I also grew up. I think he must have drawn his inspiration from some of Heywood’s finest architecture.

And to think, he could have designed something intersting like this – probably my favorite modern high rise building. The Twisting Torso in Malmo.

plyphon – Member

These flats in Southampton are supposed to be, and I quote, “A upside down spaceship.”

Listed those are, just across the road from the Train Station..

nearly mentioned South Stoneham House (also in Southampton, and also a Uni building).

but that’s more out of place than just “worst”, and compared to that above, actaully looks “alright”

Long since been knocked down, but some of my favourite images =

Modern houses aren’t as horrible looking as the ones built from the 1930s to 1950s, with that god awful textured paint.

Unfortunately, we’re no longer fans of modernity in this country, and so have reverted to caricature and a bland pastiche of a past that never existed.

What’s weirdest of all is that in TV show/estate agent/aspiring middle class speak, “period” property really means Victorian and Edwardian. Which tells me all I need to know about the tastes of the British: stuck in the past.

There is that, I rather like some of the eco homes being built.

Glad somebody mentioned “the toast rack and fried egg” in Manchester. Brother’s girlfriend studied there many, many years ago. Leaked all the time because of the tiers and slanted windows.

Now what we should be building is new homes that actually look new, something like this:

They actually look really cool imo, way better than those “cookie cutter” new builds that you see so many of.

Marrable House in Great Baddow. Already voted ugliest building in the country a few years back.

And this is the building they pulled down to put it in:

agent007 – I think they look pretty bloody cool too! Nice and open and airy. Loads of light. Whats not to like?

Don’t UK style modern cooker cutter modern houses grate on us because we see them everywhere? If we had the euro equivalent I imagine they would start looking bad soon enough.

The reason modern houses all look the same is because it is cheaper to build – design once build 1000s, and because planning allows them – but if we want big volumes of housing built, you get what you get.

Hasn’t it always been the same? I’ve owned a Victorian terrace and now live in a 1930s semi. Both mass produced to house growing populations.

Don’t UK style modern cooker cutter modern houses grate on us because we see them everywhere?

For me it’s not the ubiquity that grates; it’s the dishonesty and vapidity. I take no issue with things being cookie cut, but cookies should taste good.

A lot of the buildings in this thread I really like .
This is one of my favourites,
Trellick tower .

if we want big volumes of housing built, you get what you get.

Not really, as the ’60s and ’70s amply demonstrated there are tons of ways to build large volumes of affordable housing. From the tower blocks above, to Byker Wall, to Stella Park, to Hillside estates. The problem now seems to be that we’re so terrified of houses going out of fashion in the way that the 60s houses have that everything is designed to look pre-war.

Another Southampton Uni building, the Faraday Tower, and my nemesis

Its actually a ground breaking structural design for its time as every floor plate cantilevers off the central core, stiffened by perimeter upstand beams, with a double helix stair exiting at alternative floors (this means that whenever you go upstairs you come out 2 storeys higher on the opposite side of the building – everyone gets lost)

The structural engineer wanted to cut a slot up thew side of the building and fill it with glass. When I pointed out the building would fall down, the refurb was shelved and its been empty ever since 😳

Hopefully they will pull it down one day.

Edit – Christ, they even put it on a stamp!

No need to be terrified of 60’s and 70’s architecture, hope is not lost. Amazing what a good architect can do with even the worst of the tower blocks – a bit of a transformation here for Sheffield:

It is a bit harsh slagging off those modern cookie cutter houses as so many live in them and many like them. Thing is they’re no cheaper than similarly sized properties; many like as they require less maintenance and are more energy efficient.

Sometimes they appear on properties from hell type programs when bits start falling off them though.

Faraday Tower @ Soton Uni was ace.

Also was a demonstration of what happens when you install flappy doors at the base of tall buildings, and why revolving doors were invented.

The lecture theatre poking out of the adjacent building is ace too. Also cantilever. Fugly outside, not exactly pretty inside but is kinda clever functional design.

Also add the airfix building that the Electronics guys moved in to, but that one burned down, so doesn’t count.

Hasn’t the toast rack been removed/going to be razed?

It’s great in Birmingham, the only place you could find a brutalist building replaced with something worse…..

Why they couldn’t carry on with the 00’s methods which involved modern interiors built in old shells I don’t know. Great way of modernising whilst keeping history.

Hasn’t the toast rack been removed/going to be razed?

Nope. IT’s listed. Though it is for sale, after Manchester Metropolitan University moved out.

It has its own blog. [/url]

It’s great in Birmingham, the only place you could find a brutalist building replaced with something worse…..

Such a shame. It was a superb building….

The structural engineer can’t make the shape work without £££ or losing volume to structure, so the design gets compromised.

Now just a cotton picking minute. I’ve been on that side of the fence – structural engineer attempting to make the damn thing stand up. If it can’t be done within the budget (set by the client mind you) then it’s not a viable design. I got so argumentative with one such berk in a project meeting I was repeatedly kicked under the table by my boss. That didn’t help it stand up either.

I do like that Malmo tower though. Very classy.

It’s great in Birmingham, the only place you could find a brutalist building replaced with something worse…..

I know brummies like to whinge but you are kidding right? The old library building was a concrete monstrosity. The new building is bright, vibrant and energetic. Very impressed when I visited, especially with the multilevel roof garden with views over the city.

One I’m particularly familiar with, and which has finally been removed, was the Southgate precinct in Bath; completely enclosed, dark, gloomy passages, that always seemed to smell of wee, even if they didn’t actually do so.
The replacement is much better, wide open pedestrian ‘streets’, big open area right in the centre.

Arriving in Bath by train offered a view of the bus station and the multistory carpark at the other end of Southgate:

Scintillating.
What’s there now looks just like this original concept:

Cheers for the defence 40mpg! Although I think you highlight a major issue… The concept of a “concept architect”.

Good architects (which I hope I am one) should be able to design something fantastic that meets the brief and enhances its location, but that brief includes budget, understanding the local planning context, working with the M&E engineer and structural engineer to realise the design etc. yes, there will be compromises but if they fundamentally damage the project, then the architect has done a bad job.

When practices have concept architects and delivery architects it’s impossible for all that to happen and you get seriously compromised buildings.

There are lots of bad architects out there (as with all professions), but there are some fantastic ones too. As 40mpg alluded to, it’s tough balancing so many different things & people but that’s the challenge (and the joy) of the job.

I reckon I’d definitely have taken the bus station with a bit of TLC over the dodgy faux-georgian facade.

I much prefer the bus station as at least its of its time.
Not like the crap they replaced it with .

Another beauty is the Alexandra road estate , I would post a picture but I cannot find a single photo that does it justice .

Another beauty is the Alexandra road estate

Love Alexander Road – it’s like something out of Logan’s Run.

I reckon I’d definitely have taken the bus station with a bit of TLC over the dodgy faux-georgian facade.

Glad somebody else said this; I thought the exact same thing.

Not quite a building, but I give you Pasmore’s Apollo Pavillion. (The Pivvy)

out of an urban scene like:

It’s the pavilion you object to? It’s not even close to the worst building in the photo.

fixed!! 😀

This monstrosity in Aylesbury.

I don’t mind a bit of concrete brutal ism but this is pretty grim.
I would have opted for the Northampton bus depot but it’s been posted already.

Ha! I used to work for the company that built the development in the OP. I seem to recall the flats being snapped up off-plan by Chinese investors who had no intention of setting foot in them.

DezB – Member
The Barbican Centre

Looks like the same architect as Portsmouth’s Tricorn Centre, which got demolished about 10 years ago

I won’t have a bad word said about the Tricorn Centre. That place was awesome to skate in when it was empty. Great memories 🙂

I’ve always thought that, with the likes or the Tricorn, Barbican etc, people are obsessed with the hardness of concrete grey rather than the structure itself. The Tricorn had amazing and interesting structural shapes and architecture. You just needed to open your eyes and look a bit deeper.

I love concrete buildings, I don’t understand how we don’t live in buildings like Alexandra road or this beauty.

And have furniture like this.