Carbuncle Cup 2010 Winners + Shortlist

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

Carbuncle Cup 2010 - Media CityUK Salford
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
Strata SE1
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:
Strata SE1 - Carbuncle Cup 2010 Shortlist
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:
Bézier Apartments - Carbuncle Cup 2010 Shortlisted building
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”.

Carbuncle Cup

Location: UK

Architecture Awards

Contemporary Architecture Prizes

Stirling Prize

World Architecture Festival Awards

Carbuncle Awards – Scotland, run by the Carnyx Group

Carbuncle Cup Winners 2009

British Building Designs

English Architecture

New English Architectural Designs : current, chronological list

Stanyard’s Cottage, Surrey, southeast England
Design: Alter & Company
Stanyards Cottage Surrey
photograph : Jim Stephenson
Stanyard’s Cottage in Surrey

Kite House, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, Southern England
Design: AR Design Studio, Architects
Kite House on River Avon by AR Design Studio
picture courtesy of architects office
House on River Avon

Comments / photos for the Carbuncle Cup 2011 page welcome