Ugliest buildings thread

[cybrxkhan]

Isn't that the Kaaba in the corner, looks kind of cute next to that... tower... thing.

 

[Tee Kay]

Isn't that the Kaaba in the corner, looks kind of cute next to that... tower... thing.

Yes and yes. The Saudis thought it would be a good idea to put their dick compensator right next to the Masjid al-Haram, having it loom over the Kaaba like Cthulu or something.

 

[cybrxkhan]

For some reason it reminds me of steampunk. Like... a middle eastern steampunky tower of doom

 

[Kyriakos]

Remember that national fisheries building in India, which looked like a fish?

Apparently they just now altered it a bit, and it looks like this:

Clearly they saw what the problem was, the original fish-design just wasn't cool enough

 

[luiz]

I wouldn't call them the ugliest, but I do find them extremely boring, specially considering how celebrated they are. No matter how much Modernist nonsense trying to mask it, fact is the Esplanada dos Ministérios is composed of a bunch of boxes. That is the main avenue of the Brazilian National Capital, Brasília, and the boxes are the headquarters of the Ministeries (back in the day each Ministery had its own building, but that was when we had a rational number of Ministeries. Now we have over 40 - I am not kidding - because the Ministeries were turned into little more than job providers for Workers' Party thugs). Anyway, the photo:

 

[Bootstoots]

I wouldn't call them the ugliest, but I do find them extremely boring, specially considering how celebrated they are. No matter how much Modernist nonsense trying to mask it, fact is the Esplanada dos Ministérios is composed of a bunch of boxes. That is the main avenue of the Brazilian National Capital, Brasília, and the boxes are the headquarters of the Ministeries (back in the day each Ministery had its own building, but that was when we had a rational number of Ministeries. Now we have over 40 - I am not kidding - because the Ministeries were turned into little more than job providers for Workers' Party thugs).

The modernist nonsense isn't trying to mask the boxes. The modernist nonsense is the boxes.

And 40 isn't an irrational number of ministries, it's 40/1. If your government manages to have 2e^3 or 14π ministries, then you have something to complain about.

 

[Souron]

Something like this comes to mind:


Horrible architecture doesn't quite beat a complete disregard for aesthetics.

 

[Joecoolyo]

A plucky little demolition crew should remove this monstrous clock thing:

I think I've said this before, but I think its a pretty building that's in a completely out of place setting. It would work much better if there were buildings of comparable height surrounding it, but right now it just stands as a lone behemoth.

I have the same issues with Kuala Lumpur and Taipei.

EDIT: Also the base is too big. You want your buildings tall and thin, so you can have more of them closer together, to create a cityscape, not a mish-mash of individual towers.

I wouldn't call them the ugliest, but I do find them extremely boring, specially considering how celebrated they are. No matter how much Modernist nonsense trying to mask it, fact is the Esplanada dos Ministérios is composed of a bunch of boxes. That is the main avenue of the Brazilian National Capital, Brasília, and the boxes are the headquarters of the Ministeries (back in the day each Ministery had its own building, but that was when we had a rational number of Ministeries. Now we have over 40 - I am not kidding - because the Ministeries were turned into little more than job providers for Workers' Party thugs). Anyway, the photo:

It would be prettier if the grass was a more consistent green, or barring that, actually having foliage surround the place. Right now its just too much nothing.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Spoiler :

I think that whoever lives in that building is likely turning to a serial killer :O

yup, only looking at it i am having a sudden urge to kill somebody.

What about Kowloon City. It is architecture without archtecture. Dont know if it could be considered an unique building or many, in any case it showed some structural unity in a kind of horrible dystopia but organic and fascinating way.

more:

Spoiler :

 

[Tahuti]

Spoiler :

Amsterdam Southeast. Another modernist hellhole where mostly the lowest social classes and students are forced to live in.

 

[Kyriakos]

^That city--Kowloon-- (contained more than 30K people) indeed seems very nightmarish.

Another pic of it:

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

The building I'll be working in for the next four years or so. Still not sure what all those projections do. Maybe it's some sort of reactive armor.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Well done +1

 

[ParkCungHee]

I think I've said this before, but I think its a pretty building that's in a completely out of place setting.

I think I've said this before, but I think that's the most ugly thing a building can be. Buildings don't go in art galleries, they are firmly rooted in place, and have to be judged by their background.

That, for example is the only objection I can make of Owen's appraisal of the Olympic Tower. Taken in isolation, it's beautiful and interesting. I agree with him very much that it "feels like something out of a sci-fi novel." The only problem is that it's not, it's stuck next to the Olympic Stadium, in London. And so the beautiful red structure strikes me as nothing more than an unfinished scaffolding or piece of construction equipment like in the picture of mecca, at first glance. And that impression sticks with the viewer.

I disagree with you that the wide base is necessarily a problem, though. I think it's one of the nicest things about Abraj Al Bait. It feels like a building designed by aesthetic standards, rather then the constraints of real estate that are forcing you to build upwards. If anything, a single giant tower would look even more embarrassingly phallic. This at least looks like a manmade mountain.

To highlight how good it could have been, and how important place is, we can compare Abraj Al Bait to Moscow State University.

Not as big, but an incredibly imposing building. But They built it 5 kms from the city center, with space for it to belong to. The Abrag Al Bait doesn't belong to the space, it simply dominates it through brute force. The fact that it is place directly next to the Grand Mosque, which the entire city is built around, and is quite low and flat, almost makes it look like it's built in direct defiance of the city around it.

So for me at least, place is just about everything with a building.

 

[Tahuti]

Not as big, but an incredibly imposing building. But They built it 5 kms from the city center, with space for it to belong to. The Abrag Al Bait doesn't belong to the space, it simply dominates it through brute force. The fact that it is place directly next to the Grand Mosque, which the entire city is built around, and is quite low and flat, almost makes it look like it's built in direct defiance of the city around it.

So for me at least, place is just about everything with a building.

Apparently, I am the only one who thinks the Abraj Al Bait looks nice and suitable. Though I guess it should be, since they did destroy Ajyad fortress to build it, sadly.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Apparently, I am the only one who thinks the Abraj Al Bait looks nice and suitable.

I'll admit, you couldn't build a more suitable temple to Mammon if you tried.

 

[Traitorfish]

I'm beginning to wonder if anyone on this forum actually knows what "modernist" means.

 

[Quackers]

I'm leaning towads PCH on the Olympic tower. Scaffolding sounds about right. I've tried to like it, but I just can't. It's an eyesore, a jumbled up one. It is typical of the last several decades in art and design. In the world of architects it is "innovative" and "beautiful" design. Meanwhile in the world of the layman it is incredibly ugly. Yet, the architects keep pumping out trash, trash and more trash and are paid millions for it!

You can dress up a turd and tell me how great it is (like Owen did in post #2) but i'm never going to believe it.

 

[Joecoolyo]

I think I've said this before, but I think that's the most ugly thing a building can be. Buildings don't go in art galleries, they are firmly rooted in place, and have to be judged by their background.

That, for example is the only objection I can make of Owen's appraisal of the Olympic Tower. Taken in isolation, it's beautiful and interesting. I agree with him very much that it "feels like something out of a sci-fi novel." The only problem is that it's not, it's stuck next to the Olympic Stadium, in London. And so the beautiful red structure strikes me as nothing more than an unfinished scaffolding or piece of construction equipment like in the picture of mecca, at first glance. And that impression sticks with the viewer.

I disagree with you that the wide base is necessarily a problem, though. I think it's one of the nicest things about Abraj Al Bait. It feels like a building designed by aesthetic standards, rather then the constraints of real estate that are forcing you to build upwards. If anything, a single giant tower would look even more embarrassingly phallic. This at least looks like a manmade mountain.

Hmm, yeah, I can see where you're coming from this. At least for me, I consider both the isolated aspect and the cityscape aspect, and in isolation I think the building looks fine, like if you were standing at the base and looking up, without the rest of the city surrounding it. But when pulling back, it doesn't work at all.

As for the base thing, I don't know, I feel like if you have maybe one or two big bases at max in a city, it looks fine. But if you have too many, it creates too much separation between the buildings. You get a city of individual towers, rather than one collective whole. Its a big problem I have with Dubai's cityscape, it's just a bunch of towers of similar height with big gaps in between them. It never comes to a "whole," like New York City, or Chicago does.

To highlight how good it could have been, and how important place is, we can compare Abraj Al Bait to Moscow State University.

Not as big, but an incredibly imposing building. But They built it 5 kms from the city center, with space for it to belong to. The Abrag Al Bait doesn't belong to the space, it simply dominates it through brute force. The fact that it is place directly next to the Grand Mosque, which the entire city is built around, and is quite low and flat, almost makes it look like it's built in direct defiance of the city around it.

So for me at least, place is just about everything with a building.

Ooh, yes, I can agree with this. The Moscow State University, even with its height, works very well with its surroundings. This is one of the cases where a big base does work to the advantage, as it eases into its height, rather than just shooting straight up as with the Abrag Al Bait.

 

[eduhum]

Well, all the crazy buildings you have posted are quite aesthetic and beautiful. I have actually liked them a lot.
What Sauron says at post #27 is what ugly buildings are about.