Award nominations for British architects’ most dreaded prize have been announced.
Building Design magazine have announced the first six nominees (or victims) so far for its Carbuncle Cup, which awards ‘the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months’.
The shortlist for the award will be released at the end of August.
Among those unfortunate enough to be listed are: 20 Fenchurch Street (better known as The Walkie-Talkie) in the City of London; Library Walk at Manchester Central Library; M by Montcalm hotel in Shoreditch, London; Northwich Memorial Court leisure centre in Northwich, Cheshire; Whittle Building at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge; and Woodward Hall at Imperial College London.
Unsurprisingly, this year the most nominated Carbuncle Cup contender is Rafael Viñoly-designed 20 Fenchurch Street, aka The Walkie-Talkie. Not only has the design been criticised for looking ‘bloated, inelegant and thuggish’ (and a general eyesore behind Tower Bridge), it has also been accused of melting cars due to its concave design, which reflected sunlight directly below.
Consequently, the building was fitted with shading – but the problems didn’t stop there. A ‘wind tunnel’ effect was reported to have been caused by the building, while its ‘sky garden’ was criticised for its quality and inconsistency with the illustrations provided in the original planning permission.
Building Design magazine doesn’t hold back on their condemnation of the building, calling it a ‘gratuitous glass gargoyle graffittied onto the skyline of London’.
Last year’s winner, Sheppard Robson’s Woolwich Central, couldn’t dodge the magazine’s barbed comments either, comparing their source of inspiration to the ‘1948 Berlin Blockade’.
The Carbuncle Cup 2015 winner will be announced at the beginning of September.