The World’s Worst Designed Apartment Complex
February 27th, 2013 by Erik Loomis
Good god.
But wait, there’s more.
Someone make it stop. What did the British do to deserve this?
Posted in General | 166 comments
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Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:23 pm
I like it. It’s weird. That being said, when it comes to architecture, I have a very laissez faire “just throw shit at the wall and see what sticks” kind of attitude. I like weird stuff. I even kinda like ugly stuff.
Xenos:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:24 pm
Lots.
Bijan Parsia:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:29 pm
British plumbing, litter, colonialism, cuisine, and Hugh Grant, to start.
UberMitch:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:30 pm
I agree in theory with everything you are saying, but in practice the “little house seemingly under a corner of a different building” is indescribably bad.
joe from Lowell:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:30 pm
LIGHTS GO OUT AND I CAN’T BE SAVED
TIDES THAT I TRY TO SWIM AGAINST…
That’s what.
elm:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:30 pm
Well, one thing I learned from looking at the pictures: the window tax must no longer be in effect!
Icarus Wright:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:31 pm
So much win.
joe from Lowell:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:32 pm
It’s like someone looked at a 1970 Stalinoid concrete apartment building and said, “You know what’s wrong with this thing? It needs kitsch.”
Substance McGravitas:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:32 pm
I suppose if you had one of the top houses you could brag that everyone else was living in a packing crate underneath you. That seems British to me.
bph:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:32 pm
As a citizen of the USA, I guess we are just screwed, then.
Bill Murray:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:34 pm
you left out Andrew Sullivan and John Derbyshire
njorl:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:34 pm
Obviously someone didn’t want to sell, but didn’t control the air-rights to their property.
njorl:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:35 pm
I like how the blinds resemble boarded up windows.
Data Tutashkhia:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:36 pm
Yeah, apart from the steam engine, magna carta, and Newtonian physics, they’ve never done anything for us.
sharculese:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:39 pm
Until I saw the second image I just assumed someone had built a row of condos on the roof of an abandoned factory.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:40 pm
I think that’s the part that confuses me. There’s no getting around the fact that its really ugly. Whereas the rest is sort of intriguingly quirky to me.
JKTHs:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:43 pm
This apartment complex is not nearly enough retribution for that though.
Captain Splendid:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:45 pm
Yeah, I like it too, although it has less to do with architecture (while the idea has potential, the finished product is horrendous), and more to do with the fact that it’s not just another plain concrete behemoth.
TLDR: At least somebody’s trying, even if it’s a miserable failure. This deserves encouragement, not scorn IMO.
sharculese:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:47 pm
What if Coldplay were required to live in the little house on the bottom?
mark f:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:47 pm
Uh, and wtf is with the striped brick . . . front yard?
Balu:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:48 pm
Niall Ferguson. Scottish, but thanks to 1707, he is British.
Sherm:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:48 pm
My first thought — Mike Brady’s designs from the Brady Bunch Movie.
rea:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:49 pm
Well, he certainly achieved “memorable”.
rea:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:52 pm
Headline: “Russian Criminal Organization Launches Cyber Attack on Architectural Firm”
sparks:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:52 pm
Why, yes. Yes you do. Whatever it’s like underneath, the outward appearance is craptacular.
commie atheist:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:53 pm
The only thing better would be if the Jenga pieces actually moved.
JKTHs:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:56 pm
“Designed” is a pretty generous term for what the architects did here.
LeeEsq:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:58 pm
So you like buildings that were designed by Gaudi while on a bender?
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 27th, 2013 at 3:58 pm
Weyull. You are certainly entitled to your opinion.
LeeEsq:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:00 pm
If this punishment for British colonialism, is an unfortunate liking for Jerry Lewis retribution for French colonialism?
joe from Lowell:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:00 pm
Sothis happened.
And this.
Oh no! What if they made a building like this! That would be awful!
Thank goodness they had the good sense to design something “cartoon-like.” Thank goodness a contemporary architectural journal thinks that the term “cartoon-like” is a compliment when applied to a building.
Oh, and most of all, thank goodness they designed a building that’s “like a little urban village,” instead of building an actual little urban village. Phew, really dodged a bullet there!
EJ:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:01 pm
It’s more like someone took about 5 generic McMansions and just glued them together.
Or it’s the thing that you made when you were a kid out of all the odd lego bricks left over after you made the things you were planning to build.
actor212:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:01 pm
Holy crap! That looks like Rem Koolhas meets Rovert Moses!
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:04 pm
This doesn’t evoke Gaudi at all to me…but I think a building designed by a drunk Gaudi would probably be gorgeous.
actor212:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:07 pm
He started a whole new movement: Bau-wau Haus
sibusisodan:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:08 pm
Two theories here: the architects are either southerners taking yet another dump on an area which has been industry less and jobless for a generation or more, and this is just salt in the wound.
Or they’re from Newcastle, and have just played one of the finest neighbouring rivalry pranks of all time.
actor212:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:09 pm
I wonder how the job was bid out?
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:11 pm
I disagree, because unlike books or art or movies, it can’t be ignored by the rest of the people in the community. Experimentation in Architecture is fraught. Encouragement, yes. Also a client who knows enough to say “No”.
actor212:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:11 pm
That’s part of the building. It’s supposed to be…get this…a pub.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:12 pm
You assume that the entirety of buildings designed by Gaudi weren’t done while he was drunk.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:14 pm
I remember reading a little tidbit about his being pretty religious…then again I think he was catholic.
Substance McGravitas:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:16 pm
I can appreciate their reckoning that drinking had to be done.
joe from Lowell:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:21 pm
I’m getting the “President Palin” ad below the pictures of the building, and…I don’t know…they just seem to go together somehow.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:22 pm
I don’t know, but it amuses me.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:25 pm
I’m sort of where you are, though I don’t find it necessarily horrendous. I love that there are disparate elements. I think there are lots of ways they could have brought these disparate elements together and I’m kind of of the opinion that good design calls for doing just that. In fact, I’d say it’s a cornerstone of good design…but I have a feeling that’s the exact opposite of what the architects were looking to do. I kind of admire them for letting their freak flags fly.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:26 pm
Heck, I agree with the Dr. that experimentation can be encouraged, and weirdness in the built environment is perfectly fine. Heck, I like The Crayon box!
But, and I say this as one who’s current project is putting four stories in modern idiom on top of a 1914 single story Pierce-Arrow dealership, when you try something far out, you better have full control of the design.
And that just doesn’t. What it needed more than anything is a client who knew how to say “No”.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:28 pm
Speaking for myself, I do a LOTS better job than that when drunk. even when sober.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:28 pm
There’s a bit of old Robert Stern in there too.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:28 pm
I will vouch for this.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:29 pm
I’ve done condos on top of a factory, and let me tell you, that’s still a mistake.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:30 pm
“Doctors bury their mistakes. All Architects can do is plant vines”
I hope the landscape budget is generous.
actor212:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:31 pm
I can’t wait to see the simple lines of the George W Bush Presidential Liberry.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:32 pm
I had a Gaudi bender while in college. Had a studio with a visiting professor from Spain, the whole semester project was sited in barcelona. Haven’t gotten to visit yet, though.
actor212:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:34 pm
You’ll notice how the pub is obscured from all but a head-on view
actor212:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:35 pm
This building doesn’t look like someone dripped wet sand from his clenched fist.
(the other) Davis:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:35 pm
Is this the architectural equivalent of trolling?
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:35 pm
I think there are lots of ways they could have brought these disparate elements together
There certainly are. And for whatever reason, they didn’t or couldn’t.
I would have less of a problem with it if they weren’t using other people’s money and other people’s communities for their Freakish Flags.
At least I shit in my own community.
but I have a feeling that’s the exact opposite of what the architects were looking to do
I confess that this is the first time I have considered it possible to be an Architect Troll.
wengler:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:36 pm
The worst part is pretty cosmetic and can be easily changed. Those black X’s make it look condemned. The rest certainly isn’t good, but could be strange curiosity, like those futuristic sculptures in communist Yugoslavia.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:37 pm
Or it’s the thing that you made when you were a kid out of all the odd lego bricks left over after you made the things you were planning to build.
This.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:38 pm
dammit, other, I JUST posted that exact comment elsewhere in the thread!
Oh, well, at least mine is upthread so everyone will assume you lifted it from my comment.
Shakezula:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:40 pm
“Have you ever eaten their food? Have you ever tried to put it in your mouth?”
joe from Lowell:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:42 pm
Traditional architecture is so oppressive. Who says my design for a building has to be inspired by a building? Why can’t it be inspired by, say, a Wal Mart display of brightly-colored plastic cups from China? That’s the type of concept that will really have a lasting significance for people.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:42 pm
I’ve seen that movie.
Eggomaniac:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:42 pm
+1
Shakezula:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:43 pm
No nation would risk the kind of retribution that would deserve.
Eggomaniac:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:43 pm
It does seem rather obviously assertive in its classism.
Eggomaniac:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:48 pm
I don’t know. I think the worst part are the Monopoly mansions sitting on top. Not much can be done about those that wouldn’t be expensive.
The black X’s do make it look like they forgot to remove the shipping tape. That’s an easy fix, as you say.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:49 pm
OK, now that we all have that out of our system and I have a drink in me, I have to say I like the mosaic at the back of the court, and the stripey plaza too.
Remove the fakey houses, top and bottom, and it might even be pretty good.
sharculese:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:49 pm
Can you make a building in the shape of an eagle driving a thunderbolt into a terrorist while high-fiving the Statue of Liberty?
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:50 pm
Here’s something fun. When I was kid, somebody designed a park feature that looked like a Gaudi…in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I grew up playing on that thing.
(the other) Davis:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:50 pm
We even have matching time stamps!
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:51 pm
Ha ha ha!!!
Eggomaniac:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:52 pm
What’s frightening is this is sufficiently unique that it will probably get Graded, and then not only will you never be rid of it, but you won’t be able to change it.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:53 pm
No. The bottom house, yes. But I like the top ones. They just need to look as if they have something to do with the rest of the building, either through color with some of the weird little markers they put on the rest of the thing. That’s just my opinion. I’m the artist, but you’re the architect. Oh well I guess we’re both artists.
Stag Party Palin:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:54 pm
Where’s the abbatoir?
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:54 pm
Saying “I meant to do that” doesn’t make it any better.
Stag Party Palin:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:54 pm
Or, where’s the abattoir?
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:55 pm
One thing I will say for my college design professors, they saw through shoddy rationalization and wouldn’t allow it during project presentations.
Eventually, I had a violent SOB boss that wouldn’t allow it either. At this point, when I do something weird, I have WELL-THOUGHT-OUT Rationalizations!
Eggomaniac:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:57 pm
I think you meant English. Except for the plumbing. And haggis.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:57 pm
Oh yeah?
Well, we have a Fonzie Statue!
BigHank53:
February 27th, 2013 at 4:58 pm
I tell you what–just the thought of walking into a house that looks like it’s in imminent danger of being crushed puts me in a serious drinking mood.
BigHank53:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:00 pm
The British gave us flush toilets. Hot water, not so much.
Shakezula:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:00 pm
For some reason I thought of Lovecraft’s many angled ones AND Monty Python’s Architecture skit AT THE SAME TIME.
OK. No. My hometown has more than its fair share of architectural moments. Sometimes it is cool. But sometimes it sucks.
But here’s what I’ve learned. The cooler and more different it looks on day one, the quicker people will get sick of the sight of it. Here we’re talking picoseconds.
And then there is the issue of maintenance. How long will that paintwork stay fresh, and what will it cost to touch it up? And the woodwork. This place is on the water. Have fun reapplying the poly to keep that from looking even more crap. Idiots.
BigHank53:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:01 pm
Maybe that’s what they told the architects.
BigHank53:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:05 pm
Add some fake trees and bushes around the fake houses and it will actually help.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:05 pm
There’s nothing wrong with a penthouse element there, but they way they did it was misbegotten at best. best to take them off now. Heck, remove the walls and wrap them with glass curtain wall, and it would work better.
N__B:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:08 pm
I’m sure the blind members of the community don’t mind it…except for the screams coming from the sighted nearby.
N__B:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:10 pm
Sagrada Familia is the only building I’ve waited on line for and was it more than worth it. I stood in the middle of the sanctuary staring up for about half an hour without moving.
N__B:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:13 pm
Can’t be his brain. That’s in a bell jar at the University Club.
N__B:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:15 pm
I’m thinking a lawn-mower glued to the vertical side of the main block about 5 feet down from the main-block roof.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:24 pm
I suggest adding some C5 to those top two elements.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:25 pm
“Textbook penthouse wart removal, sir!”
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:26 pm
What’s the difference?
sharculese:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:27 pm
It’s pronounced ‘presnit’.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:31 pm
gonna be a boon for direction-giving though.
“just drive until you pass the WTF Building, then take a left.”
“What’s the WTF Building?”
“Don’t worry, you’ll know it when you see it.”
wjts:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:37 pm
Did you say “knives”?
guthrie:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:51 pm
I thought we gave all these things to the USA so they could use them as a foundation to create even worse things?
Leeds man:
February 27th, 2013 at 5:56 pm
Yeah, I was wondering where they put the rotating knives.
Actually, I like it. A change from the usual boring dreck.
Major Kong:
February 27th, 2013 at 6:02 pm
Looks like a Tudor mansion on top of a parking garage on top of a barn.
Proof that at least one architect in the UK is doing drugs.
J. Otto Pohl:
February 27th, 2013 at 6:09 pm
It is pay back for colonial oppression in Africa and elsewhere. ;-)
J. Otto Pohl:
February 27th, 2013 at 6:15 pm
It is a down payment on a huge invoice.
Shakezula:
February 27th, 2013 at 6:20 pm
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands.
I don’t mind this because it is relatively restrained and it is a hotel, not a residence.
J. Otto Pohl:
February 27th, 2013 at 6:25 pm
They must be really good drugs too.
calling all toasters:
February 27th, 2013 at 6:29 pm
And for Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Origami Isopod:
February 27th, 2013 at 6:35 pm
Not to be confused with the building housing the WTF Group.
Origami Isopod:
February 27th, 2013 at 6:37 pm
Have you never heard of Frank Gehry?
Origami Isopod:
February 27th, 2013 at 6:40 pm
Well, this isn’t anywhere near me, but since I found it yesterday… have a Republican statue.
Origami Isopod:
February 27th, 2013 at 6:41 pm
Nobody’s mentioned Piers Morgan yet?
Tyto:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:01 pm
Rotating knives, yes.
LeftWingFox:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:03 pm
It does look like the pub was stuffed in there to keep the whole thing from wobbling.
LeftWingFox:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:05 pm
Homestuck flashbacks.
herr doktor bimler:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:06 pm
“It was about assembling disparate elements you would think of as incongruous into a collage that has an expression of community.”
Allowing a community to develop of its own accord takes time, and is unpredictable, so let’s impose one!
UserGoogol:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:11 pm
Don’t knock cartoons. Cartoons are one of the great artforms of our age. And this building has fairly little to do with cartoons. Cartoons are about stylization and creativity. Cartoony does not and should not mean “weird and vaguely alarming.” (For example, Batman the Animated Series fits quite nicely alongside the Chrysler Building.)
delurking:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:19 pm
Dr.KennethN! You’re from Fayetteville? I teach down the mountain in the Fort. I used to take my kid up the hill to play on that castle!
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:22 pm
Are you serious? Holy crap! It’s a small awesome world we live in! Always great to meet another Arkansan!
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:23 pm
LOL!
rea:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:35 pm
My personal, latest theory is that they put it together from extra parts left over from other projects . . .
Turkle:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:38 pm
Right. Has no one read Jane Jacobs? This sort of thing still reeks of the high modernism it ostensibly subverts…
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:54 pm
I was disdainful of Gehry’s work after his remodeling of his own house, until I visited his addition to the Art Gallery of Toronto, which I quite liked.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:55 pm
hire a hall.
Pestilence:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:56 pm
Tried, yes.
Altho ‘food’ may be stretching the definition
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:56 pm
yeah, UGLY dreck.
Pestilence:
February 27th, 2013 at 7:57 pm
*partial* payback for ALW
Thom:
February 27th, 2013 at 8:04 pm
My thoughts exactly. Plus 300 years of slave trade and slavery. Unfortunately, though, many British people today are descendants of the former slaves or the formerly colonized peoples.
thebewilderness:
February 27th, 2013 at 8:14 pm
If they paint it all one color so the cottages on top don’t look so absurd the neighbors might not complain as much. I have no idea how to convince people to go out drinking in a pub that is being crushed by a fallen apartment block.
JustRuss:
February 27th, 2013 at 8:20 pm
Win!!!
N__B:
February 27th, 2013 at 9:15 pm
Have you read Batman Versus Killer Architecture? Hi-lar-ious takedown of “Kem Roolhuas.”
N__B:
February 27th, 2013 at 9:19 pm
English Heritage never instituted the Grade X, did they? The grade that stated “this must be demolished.”
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 9:25 pm
Bruce Wayne always did kind of have a Randian vibe.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 9:28 pm
in Bimler’s defense, there’s no way it looks any worse upside-down.
zombie rotten mcdonald:
February 27th, 2013 at 9:59 pm
Add a bunch of fake dogs.
LeeEsq:
February 27th, 2013 at 10:25 pm
Yes, Gaudi was a very devote Catholic. There is no contradiction between being fond of drink and Catholicism.
Anonymous:
February 27th, 2013 at 11:17 pm
Bela Lugosi’s Apartment’s Dead. It’s dead, it’s dead, it’s dead
Bill Murray:
February 27th, 2013 at 11:24 pm
it’s the b’s t’s
Vance Maverick:
February 27th, 2013 at 11:37 pm
How is it that no-one has yet cited Michael Graves in this thread. Admittedly, Target rather than Wal-Mart, but pretty close….
Walt:
February 28th, 2013 at 1:31 am
There’s some movie where Hugh Grant plays the Prime Minister, and gives the most stirring pro-British speech ever.
M. Bouffant:
February 28th, 2013 at 2:42 am
What a bunch of aesthetic fascists.
I mean, it’s no giant dough-nut or giant hot dog in a bun (Real architecture!) but it’s certainly whimsical.
Bijan Parsia:
February 28th, 2013 at 3:22 am
British toilets are very weird, esp. the urinals.
The non-ubiquity of mixer taps is a real crime, though.
Bijan Parsia:
February 28th, 2013 at 3:30 am
One thing I’ve noticed in my over 6 years living in Manchester is that new construction tends to be pretty awful. On Oxford road, they replaced a lovely lowrise with really nice stone work with a bizarre, black brick Holiday Inn Express. It’s stupid and offensively ugly from every angle. It doesn’t even have the possibility of pleasing the eye, indeed, of not making the eye at least dry heave.
Similarly, the University of Manchester put up a giant tin can with flashing that got all dented in the first week from zephyrs. The weirdly space gray on gray letters cannot be read in full from any angle. It’s not particularly nice inside either.
OTOH, Metropolitian seems to be able to put up some nice new buildings.
Doug:
February 28th, 2013 at 3:33 am
False advertising! None of their pics make me go WTF.
Doug:
February 28th, 2013 at 3:48 am
Cartoony gives us the Fred & Ginger building in Prague, which is all kinds of neat.
Dave:
February 28th, 2013 at 4:22 am
And indeed, of the people who slaved in the factories at the same time, thank you very much. Race doesn’t always trump class, y’know.
ajay:
February 28th, 2013 at 5:04 am
“I’ll say this for the Luftwaffe: at least when they destroyed the centres of our cities, they didn’t replace them with anything more offensive than rubble. We did that.” — the very splendid and worthwhile Prince Philip
ajay:
February 28th, 2013 at 5:08 am
You forgot railways, telegraph, antibiotics, the jet engine, the computer, electromagnetism, the theory of evolution, logarithms, the pneumatic tyre, parliamentary democracy, radar, CT scans, the structure of DNA, the cause of malaria and the joint stock corporation.
Data Tutashkhia:
February 28th, 2013 at 5:18 am
Yeah, sure, that all goes without saying, but aside from that they’ve done nothing for us.
RhZ:
February 28th, 2013 at 6:12 am
Presnit Palin? Why, that has quite a ring to it! That’s all the basis I need to vote for her in 2016! She will bring honor back to the White House!!
Bijan Parsia:
February 28th, 2013 at 7:30 am
It all pales next to non-mixer taps, carpet in the bathroom, and Scouse* accents.
* Except for that of the Beatles.
Bijan Parsia:
February 28th, 2013 at 7:31 am
Actually, I’ve had no trouble with hot water in Manchester…indeed, it’s often too hot.
actor212:
February 28th, 2013 at 9:00 am
Have you seen all the sequels?
Hypercube was great.
actor212:
February 28th, 2013 at 9:02 am
If by “whimsical” you mean “vomit-inducing”…
montag:
February 28th, 2013 at 9:25 am
Oh, sweet jaysus, the penthouses are… houses.
How is the NPT ever going to work if we keep putting up worthwhile targets?
Halloween Jack:
February 28th, 2013 at 9:52 am
That reminds me strongly of the fictional American Megaversity in Neal Stephenson’s early book The Big U. The school has sold off most of its valuable big-city real estate and constructed a nine-block single Brutalist behemoth of a building to house the college, but has kept some of the old-timey accoutrements, such as wood-paneled offices for the administration and a Ye Olde Pub.
Just Dropping By:
February 28th, 2013 at 10:00 am
That was my exact reaction too.
MatthewsB:
February 28th, 2013 at 11:22 am
To quote the the very article,”Our general philosophy about architecture is that much of it is very dull with no sense of exuberance, or any openness to a wider variety of influences and sources” added [FAT director Sean] Griffiths. “This building is part of our expression that architecture should contribute something more memorable.” :)
That Other Mike:
February 28th, 2013 at 11:31 am
The modern world and everything in it we take for granted as a good thing. Well, maybe not everything, but a lot of it. I think in balance, we come out quite well.
J.W. Hamner:
February 28th, 2013 at 11:52 am
Yes, I was like “Oh this isn’t so bad, a little odd maybe…” until I scrolled down to the little rancher foot part which is more “ohmigodwhathavetheydone!?”
Anna in PDX:
February 28th, 2013 at 11:57 am
LOL I was thinking this too but at LGM someone always gets there first.
JRoth:
February 28th, 2013 at 12:25 pm
Now I wish I taught an architecture studio class.
JRoth:
February 28th, 2013 at 12:31 pm
The stripey plaza bugs me for a couple reasons (granting that it’s at least possible that it works IRL): 1. It’s so vast and impervious and dizzying, although maybe the scale is exaggerated by the pics; 2. WTF is with that swale right before you get to the pubchalet?
I can’t decide whether any plausible version of those pent houses would work, or if the idea is just inherently obvious and kitschy-ironic. Like a statue of a garden gnome in the courtyard.
Njorl:
February 28th, 2013 at 3:17 pm
I’ll buy that, at least as far as Hugh Grant is concerned.
Peter VE:
February 28th, 2013 at 5:01 pm
What have the French done to deserve this? I blame Ayn Rand. The Fountainhead has blighted far too many young minds, resulting in generations of architects believing that any excrescense they may conceive demonstrate the greatness of their genius.
Peter VE:
February 28th, 2013 at 5:05 pm
Linky fixed</a.
Graham Shevlin:
February 28th, 2013 at 6:32 pm
I used to think that no high rise building in the UK could approach the sheer mediocre awfulness of Arlington House in Margate, but I might have to revise my opinion…other buildings are creeping down to join it…
BKNinCanadia:
February 28th, 2013 at 7:09 pm
FTW
Mike Crichton:
March 1st, 2013 at 12:45 am
Worst designed like a FOX! Oh, _please_ tell me that the penthouses have actual lawns with grass.
Habib Kazem:
April 20th, 2013 at 4:07 pm
I still find it more better designed then those low-income housing projects in the U.S.