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You can find pictures and article here. Have to say, most of them are truly disgusting, but the Bolwoningen Houses may be the worst. Those will haunt my dreams for some time.

fable wrote:Have to say, most of them are truly disgusting, but the Bolwoningen Houses may be the worst.

Ugh. They look like water containers that have been converted into spartan apartments. Methinks a new coat of paint is in order.

I quite like Le Palais Ideal, it has a certain je ne sais quoi.

I'm going with the giant basket as the worst of the bunch.

Believe it or not the SIS building isn't too bad 'in the flesh', far worse IMHO is this.

The Bolwoningen Houses are awful, did the Belgians get fed up with 'The Atom' and flog it bit by bit to their neighbours?

fable wrote:You can find pictures and article here. Have to say, most of them are truly disgusting, but the Bolwoningen Houses may be the worst. Those will haunt my dreams for some time.

Ok, those buildings may be viewed as extraordinary ugly because they were meant as parade buildings, but I think each and every average apartment complex building here in LA is far more ugly than any of the 15 buildings on that website. And I'd be happy to live in a Bolwoningen concrete sphere rather than the horrendous bunker I live in here!

C Elegans wrote:Ok, those buildings may be viewed as extraordinary ugly because they were meant as parade buildings, but I think each and every average apartment complex building here in LA is far more ugly than any of the 15 buildings on that website. And I'd be happy to live in a Bolwoningen concrete sphere rather than the horrendous bunker I live in here!

Yeah, CE, but the point the writer made in the article was that there are tons of aesthetically puerile buildings put up without thought. The thing about these 15 spotlighted buildings is that they designed as showcase pieces. They were intended to look that way because architects considered them worthy. It's the difference between embracing ugliness because its cheap and quick, and embracing ugliness because you believe it's beautiful.

I wouldn't have been surprised had Disney's Concert Hall made it onto that list. It looks like a pile of aluminum junk aliens left behind after a night of raucous partying.

But hey, the line between innovation and absurdness is a very fine one indeed.

Most of them are quite nice IMO. Southern California has millions of uglier buildings.

Sain wrote:Most of them are quite nice IMO. Southern California has millions of uglier buildings.

Oh, there are tons of ugly buildings around, Sain. The point of the article is that these particular ones were deliberately designed that one because someone or some group thought they looked good. Which takes matters to a whole higher level.

galraen wrote:Believe it or not the SIS building isn't too bad 'in the flesh', far worse IMHO is this.

The Bolwoningen Houses are awful, did the Belgians get fed up with 'The Atom' and flog it bit by bit to their neighbours?

'Shudders' Ack, was the architect who drew the plans up drunk when the lines ended up all curved instead of straight? And if that is true, why did not someone else question it? was this architect some kind of mystic figure no one dares to question?

The only thing that could make those buildings any uglier was if they were filled with Pollock paintings. I swear, I don't get art, and I don't think I want to if it ends up making people create stuff like that.

I like the SIS building though. It looks like it's made out of Legos!