Bad Architecture

[scrichton]

Dundee in Scotland is known for having the 2nd most offensive building architecturally in the UK. As voted by the governing architectural body (never remember the name)

Anyone know of any more in Scotland that are of equal lack of inspiration? Apart from Cumbernauld's dismal shopping centre (the first self contained mall/centre in the country possibly the world)

The Monstrosity that is the MECCA. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/zuiko/384644378/)Not on large format, but do I care in this case ? No :-D A nikonos on the street gives you much more in the way of looks.

Steven

[scrichton]

Oh forgot to say. This is in between a 17th century church and Victorian buildings. Out of place! Plus it is a 90's replica of the Art Deco one that burned down (a good sight on the night) therefore all the splendour has been removed and replaced with AutoCAD hate.

[JW Dewdney]

Hey - you think YOU have it bad... you should come to the US!! I even bought a domain called 'architorture' that I was going to develop just to post images of thoughtlessly designed buildings...! You should read Umberto Eco's Travels in Hyperreality to get a really good insight -and a great laugh!

[Walter Calahan]

I think you're both on to something here. Celebrating the bad. I'll look for Eco's book.

If you want to see repetitive bland, come to Washington DC. The city has a height restriction so nothing towers over the momuments. Buildings in the commercial zones are squeezed into a 10-story space with no care to its visual appeal. Box after box of nothing. Don't even get me started on most of the government buildings.

[JW Dewdney]

Don't even get me started about los angeles - the basic idea is 24 gauge steel stud construction slopped over with chicken wire and stucco - so that your structure will resemble a building in the most crude fashion imagineable...! It's unreal. Talk about people without a reference in the world..!!! ack.

[scrichton]

I must admit I forgot my travels around california and the truly dismal architecture in some areas.

However as far as post-war masterpieces go America has a fair few. Us .. pre-fab crap and leftover military buildings.

Just a note jonathon, in your site I would recommend losing the enter screen and using an iframe for the main section. The fragmentation means it takes a wee while to get through. Plus iframes will help self encapsulate the design.

[adrian tyler]

perhaps if you re enstated the death penalty in the scottish parliment, only for arquitects that is, things may get better...

[Henry Ambrose]

oh but...........

You'd have to come to the Southeast U.S. to see truly disgusting design.
EIFS has been elevated to new lows around here.

[JW Dewdney]

Just a note jonathon, in your site I would recommend losing the enter screen and using an iframe for the main section. The fragmentation means it takes a wee while to get through. Plus iframes will help self encapsulate the design.

Actually - I AM using iFrames for my primay layout. I really like the design though...if you could PM me and let me know what seems to take a long time...? It seems pretty fast and compact to me. The enter screen I need in order to have a javascript window of a locked specific size. I've bugged TONS of people for alternatives to this, since I can't get my content on search engines this way. But unless I go 100% flash (and fairly sophisticated at that) - it seems impossible to do so.