Carbuncle Cup nomination — Cutty Sark renovation by Grimshaw Architects
Have your say on this year’s shortlist
From the nominator:
“What should have looked like this…
…has ended up looking like this!”
“Someone appears to have stolen the roof from the British Museum and dropped the Cutty Sark on top of it. If the budget didn’t stretch to detail the glazing as shown in the original 3D image, it should have been scrapped, why is there need for the glass? There wasn’t glass before, why not make the dry dock accessible to the public and open to the elements, it could have been an amazing public space! A serious missed opportunity!”
Postscript:
Carbuncle cup nominations are now open. Email yours to bdonline@ubm.com or tweet your nomination using #carbunclecup
Any building with a known designer that completed in the last 12 months or is due for completion before the 2012 Olympics is eligible.
Each week we’ll feature one nominated building. The buildings with most comments will automatically make the shortlist alongside those selecetd by the judges.
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Readers' comments (30)
I disagree that the dry dock should be open to the elements. I think the glazing was a good idea and allows the curators to fill the dry dock with other exhibits such as paintings and photos. I've not yet seen the refurbished Cutty Sark in the flesh, but I intend to do so. I hope it's not as bad as this article suggests.
I find this yearly Carbuncle Cup so dispiriting. All it results in is mud-slinging between architects rather than highlighting poor quality architecture.
There are so many appalling buildings built each year….bad schools, social housing, low grade hospitals but these are never nominated for this prize. The Cutty Sark is clearly not a bad piece of architecture, nor were most of the nominations last year. Why can’t the BD/Carbuncle Cup make a positive contribution to UK architecture and actually focus meaningfully on bad architecture.
Editor's comments
Hi Ed,
We are only publishing nominations from readers, so it is really up to you to nominate buildings you would like to appear here. I tend to agree with you - there are a lot of truly bad buildings that have completed this year that have yet to be nominated, and there are plenty outside of London too. Sadly the rules prevent me from nominating them myself. If there are buildings you would like to nominate please send your nomination and a brief explanation to bdonline@ubm.com
Anna Winston
Online editor
I wish I had nominated this one. Awful.
This clumsy and crude disfigurement to a beautiful and finely proportioned ship, is a well-deserved nomination.
How depressing.
Yes, a well-deserved nomination.
Poor architecture combines with devaluing an elegant heritage icon.
Next we will have Buckingham Palace floating on the glass cloud of a Crossrail Two station if we are not careful!
I want to see the ship, good nomination! The BBC documentary on the renovation of the ship and the associated greenhouse is worth watching by the way.
Fair nomination.
I say, I come up with these kinds of concepts all the time, splendid idea cutty shark in the ice burger, but it looks a shade dodgy in real life, and at least mine don't get built, what? That said, I have a roundabout nearing realisation in Doncaster.
@ Mike Duriez: interesting idea. I have another: why not get Grimshaw to build one of these things round the Queen?
Well, Cuff, old chap, I must say you are rather clever to have spotted that the ice burg. Not like the captain of the Titanic. More like Captain Scott.