The Walkie Talkie has become Building Design magazine’s latest victim as the 2015 winner of the Carbuncle Cup, the Razzie equivalent of the Stirling Prize.
Awarded to the UK's ‘ugliest building built in the last 12 months’, being a recipient of the Carbuncle Cup is not exactly an honour. As the most recommended nomination of the year combined with 2014's pre-emptive nominations, the win isn't a shock for the Walkie Talkie.
Rafael Viñoly’s 20 Fenchurch Street (the Walkie Talkie’s proper, and lesser-known, name) beat five other shortlisted buildings to win the elusive title. Nominations included Woodward Hall, North Action by Careyjones Chapmantolcher; Whittle Building, University of Cambridge by John Simpson Architects; Waltham Forest YMCA building, London by Robert Kilgour Architects; City Gateway, Southampton by Fluid Design; and Parliament House, Lambeth, London by Keith Williams Architects.
Building Design magazine name a number of issues with the Walkie Talkie; ‘its crimes read like a furious police charge sheet of bad architecture and if anything summarises what makes a building a Carbuncle, this is it’.
Yet Ike Ijeh, writing for the magazine, considers the biggest injustice is the fact that the planning permission for it was accepted in the first place. Ijeh reflects that, despite the determining planning authority (supported by CABE) ‘concluding that the proposals would cause ‘significant visual harm’’, permission was still granted.
In the past, the Walkie Talkie has been criticised relentlessly for its impact on its surroundings. During construction, its concave design led to sun reflecting down directly onto the street below and melting cars and motorbikes. As a consequence, the building was given a second nickname: the Walkie Scorchie – until ‘brise soleil’ sunshade was installed to deflect the sun.
Earlier in the summer it was further condemned by local businesses for creating a ‘wind tunnel effect’ due to a downdraught from building’s 34 storeys. Its Sky Garden was also subject to criticism, with Oliver Wainwright from the Guardian describing it as feeling ‘like you’re trapped in an airport’ and that ‘you can barely see the city because of a steel cage’.
Chief planning officer Annie Hampson further dismissed the Sky Garden in a report published by The City of London Corporation. Hampson said that the Sky Garden’s layout at 20 Fenchurch Street differed from the original, approved plans.
Viñoly’s 20 Fenchurch Street Carbuncle win follows 2014’s victorious Woolwich Central, designed by Sheppard Robson. Alex Grant, the former head of planning on Greenwich Council which allowed the project to go ahead, expressed remorse regarding his involvement with it: ‘It may not be a carbuncle but it is a flawed project and I regret my role as its midwife.’
The judges on the panel did give Woolwich Central ‘carbuncle status’ in the end, however, calling it ‘lumpen’, ‘arrogant’ and ‘oppressive’.