The Carbuncle Cup Award 2009 vote now...

"Just think my dear...If this is what man is capable of achieving in the Seventeenth Century, just imagine what he will be capable of in the Twenty-First!"

mikewilliamscartoons

From BuildingDesignOnline -

"High profile monstrosities, value-engineered shockers, buildings so ugly they freeze the heart - crap architecture continues its march across the UK.

Launched for the first time in 2006, the Carbuncle Cup is to the Stirling Prize what the Golden Raspberries are to the Oscars. So while the Riba searched for architecture's prime cuts, they set out to uncover the offal.

Nominations for the 2009 Carbuncle Cup – for the most hideous building completed in the last 12 months.

Either add your nomination to the story at this link , or email bdonline@ubm.com telling them where the building is and why it deserves to win. Pictures are welcome."

Pics here of Edinburgh`s most popular for award so far, oh it is the latest addition to Murrayburgh. Oh isn`t it a shame that his latest known locally as AM`s "Pube" on Leith Street isn`t completed yet so he could have had a double whammy.
Though its been uncovered that his Cube was not an original idea (surprise surprise) but inspiration came from a visit to an Australian nightclub....

But as yet this question remains unanswered, why has one mediocre architect got nearly all the projects in town??

Architects Are Littering The Uk

A sign showing an architect sensibly throwing his latest plans for an ego driven landmark building into a bin. These signs are to be placed around Edinburgh to encourage architects to think before they submit plans and litter the city. Architects will be encouraged to have at least one in each of their offices

22 February 2008 from Building Design

Journalist and author Simon Jenkins has launched a broadside against architects, accusing them of being behind a drive to use the planning system to litter the country with unpopular “iconic” buildings.

“Town planning has always been stupid. It’s always been led by architects and construction”
Simon JenkinsSpeaking to BD as he prepared to deliver the Royal Town Planning Institute’s annual lecture on Wednesday night, Jenkins said the “stupid” and “neophiliac” planning system was run by a coterie of architects and construction industry professionals who had managed to convince politicians of the validity of their iconic building agenda at the expense of existing buildings.

“Town planning has always been stupid,” Jenkins said. “It’s always been led by architects and the construction industry [who have a] vested interest in tearing apart existing settlements and building new ones, but usually building new ones as iconic buildings rather than neighbourhoods, because that’s where the money and the glory is.”

He continued: “The concepts of the sustainable community and renewable, recyclable buildings and eco-cities are almost all just as stupid as the mistakes that were made before.”

Citing campaigns he had participated in, including the preservation of London markets such as Covent Garden and Spitalfields, he said that the general public were “instinctively being good planners” by choosing to congregate where old buildings exist.

But RIBA vice president Jack Pringle, who clashed with Jenkins in June when the two staged a debate over whether architects had learned the lessons of the sixties, dismissed Jenkins’ comments.

He said: “The best architects appreciate more than anybody else the value of listing buildings and the historic infrastructure.”

So Jack Pringle must be referring to Edinburgh Favourite Allan "I am an Urbanist not a Architect" Murray, then??

Save Our Old Town Campaign Website www.eh8.org.uk