The Best Of The Best Of The Worst Designs In History

Andrew Leci gives us his take on how something so wrong can also be alright.

- Andrew Leci

The National Theatre, London, UK

It's so ugly we had to give the architect a knighthood.

While I admit that I may have dreamt this, and in the very best case I am paraphrasing, I recall the line being the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby, a main character in the BBC's classic comedies, Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. It was referring to the National Theatre in London's South Bank, a building design that has divided opinion since its completion in 1976 - the year the architect, Denys Lasdun, was knighted.

Prince Charles described the structure as a clever way of building a nuclear power station in the middle of London without anyone objecting, although it's fair to say that other people were not quite so charitable. It's been described as an 'eyesore', a 'monstrosity', even a 'carbuncle' on London's landscape, and while it's eminently possible that Lasdun had shares in a concrete company (this is conjecture and, therefore, not libellous, hopefully) one thing's for sure. The building has stood the test of time and become part of the urban fabric in the UK's capital city.

As is rarely said, 'ugliness is in the eye of the beholder', but there is something deliciously hideous about the design that, like every good artistic creation and vision, stimulates both thought and debate. While it could just as easily be a civil service department in the former Soviet Union, the epitome of the Brutalist architectural movement has become one of the most loved/hated structures in the UK.

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