Carbuncle Cup

The Carbuncle Cup is an architecture prize, given annually by the magazine Building Design to "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months". It is intended to be a humorous response to the prestigious Stirling Prize, given by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The Carbuncle Cup award was launched in 2006, with the first winner being Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth by Chapman Taylor. A shortlist is announced by Building Design each year, based on nominations from the public, and usually timed to coincide with the Stirling Prize shortlist. Public voting via the magazine's website was used to select past winners, giving the award a sense of democratic involvement. Since 2009 a small group of critics has selected the final winners.

The award was inspired by the Carbuncle Awards, which the Scottish architecture magazine Urban Realm, formerly Prospect, had been presenting to buildings and areas in Scotland since 2000.

The names of both awards are derived from a comment by Charles, Prince of Wales, an outspoken critic of modern architecture, who in 1984 described Ahrends, Burton and Koralek's proposed extension of London's National Gallery as a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend".

The first shortlist was announced in October 2006, and featured ten buildings.

Seven buildings were shortlisted in 2007. Opal Court, a student housing complex in Leicester, was voted the winner in October.

The 2008 shortlist of seven buildings was announced in early October. Stuart Lowther of EPR Architects said he was "extremely disappointed" at the award for the Radisson SAS Waterfront Hotel being given to his firm, as the project was inherited from another architect and EPR had not designed the building's exterior.

...
Wikipedia