10 Ugliest Buildings in the World - Page 2

Now that's one fugly building!

not joking. It's a pizza box that is a tumor on one of the oldest and nicest buildings on campus.

I love the interior of the building, but I really dislike the way it looks in relation to its location on campus.


-1 on the "brilliantly designed" apsect of Maison a Bordeaux. I know you'll give me flack for this, but to quote the GF on this building: "the general concept seems straightforward and nice. three separate "houses" for different aspects of living. each house is defined differently (like the article says-carved into the hill, open, enclosed) then the elevator platform is looked at as a room that moves between all of these. what would make or break this is how that movement is defined, and how each "house" is articulated". its a good prect conceptually, finished a little funny. its odd because its a simple, fun, good idea. but its made to take itself very seriously and finished with these funny details and shapes that over do it."

then again, she can be very harsh on R.K.

Burj al Arab

for further Rem Koolhaas discussion, I asked the GF if she liked him:

As a person. Not at all. Total douche. Seriously. He has a public mistress.

The projects his office does that are really cool tend to be made cool by someone else, engineers actually. And I haven't been in one building of his I like. The finishes are cheap. I think the cctv tower is cool, its amazing that the engineers found a way to make it buildable. The seattle public library is similar, that seems like a good building.

The kunsthall in rotterdam seemed a bit nice, there's some poetic approached to what a column is, but its a little literal. There is a log at the entrance, normal columns through out, some steel shapes. A running commentary. But the you go somewhere like that crematorium in berlin and its just blown away. that is poetry, that is using light and material to shape space and feeling.

He has a building in chicago at whatever the school there is called, iit, itt? He went on a site visit and decided he liked how the ceilings look unfinished. Essentially blue foam, it looks cheap and it won't hold up. We visited these buildings on my summer trip. We saw buildings hundreds of years old, and then ones from modernism that were about 100 years old. Most were in great shape, looked like they'd continue standing no matter what.

His buildings don't look like they will look nice in 100 years, or be standing. They are nice conceptual arrangements and approaches, with interesting structure (sometimes) and cheap finishing.

Interesting thoughts. I've seen these "cheap" finishes your gf talks about and I tend to think of them as "rough" rather than cheap. Cheap implies a lack of attention to detail and skill - something that I don't think is accurate here. In other words, his buildings and houses are intended to look "cheaply" (or roughly) finished IMO.

You just don't like those uppity arabs that stay there for 50k/night.

The Mies building at IIT has been renovated at least twice and once very recently. It hasn't exactly resisted aging.

Good point. I shot it back her way for more thoughts:

i really dont think anyone wants something to look cheap. i think its just an error in the attitude and decision make process. all buildings are very expensive to build. Structure is whats expensive, glass is expensive. Fitting out a buildings is a fraction of costs.

that house doesnt necessarily look cheap, i haven't been in it. but all of the other buildings i've been in don't compare to the classics on any level.

I agree I think that is pretty cool. I love the fusion of old and new.

Thanks gomestar - very interesting opinions and quite opposite to what my architect friends think of him. I know a few architects and used to live with one (granted, they're European), and all have a trememdous amount of respect for OMA/Koolhaas and what he brought to the archi world.

The EMP is a monumental eyesore, IMO... The Seattle Public Library, on the other hand is quite nice.

I love the library

EMP looks like a multicolored turd, and this is coming from someone who likes Gehry's work.

--Andre

I hope it's destroyed in an earthquake.
The man just piles crumpled paper together to get the forms for his buildings!