Thursday, October 11, 2012

Architecture and its Discontents


Some unnamed wise guys here in Spain have organized the Pretzel Prize to annually recognize the worst in architecture and urbanism. See their web page here, where you can vote for your choice among several finalists for 2012.

The forum also offers the opportunity to write-in crits of your favorite worst buildings. Very tempting.

But I must say the list of finalists is a disappointment. Easy targets, and brushing off any serious appreciation for experiment and flash -- the Revenge of the Philistines?

Sorry guys, a lot of your candidates for the dumps will be around a lot longer on the collective radar than your poor opinion of them (Frank Gehry's Strata Building at MIT, Jean Nouvel's Agbar Tower in Barcelona....).

Best of the page: It could be worse, a section with photos of hilarious details, such as the one shown here.

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