This year's Carbuncle Cup, an annual competition to highlight the worst piece of new architecture in the U.K., goes to Rafael Viñoly, FAIA's 20 Fenchurch Street, Building Design announced today.
The building, also known as the Walkie Talkie, has been blamed for melting a Jaguar and causing winds strong enough to knock people off their feet. "Responsible for a catalogue of catastrophes, it is hard to imagine a building causing more damage if it tried," writes critic Oliver Wainwright in The Guardian. He continues: "It looms thuggishly over its low-rise neighbours like a broad-shouldered banker in a cheap pinstriped suit. And it gets fatter as it rises, to make bigger floors at the more lucrative upper levels, forming a literal diagram of greed."
The 2015 Carbuncle Cup jury was Building Design editor Thomas Lane; columnist and historian Gillian Darley; columnist and architectural designer Eleanor Jolliffe; and architecture critic Ike Ijeh. The shortlist included Woodward Hall in London by Careyjones Chapmantolcher, the Whittle building in Peterhouse by John Simpson Architects, the Waltham Forest YMCA building in London by Robert Kilgour Architects, City Gateway in Southampton by Fluid Design, and Parliament House in London. Last year's Carbuncle Cup went to London's Woolwich Central designed by Sheppard Robson.
