2010 Winner: Strata Building, Elephant & Castle, London
The Strata Building in central London’s Elephant & castle district was nominated by The Georgian Group for its “plain visual grotesqueness” and “breakfast-extracting” ugliness. From its barcode- like cladding to the concave front facade to the electric shaver cut of its upper levels, the 43-story Strata Building (designed by BFLS) certainly stands out – then again, the 480 feet tall block is Britain’s tallest residential building and it dwarfs anything in the neighborhood. On the bright side, BFLS claims the three large rooftop wind turbines can supply 8 percent of the building’s energy requirements… one assumes, when the wind is blowing in just the right direction. Negative reviews of the Strata Building far outweigh the positives, however. “Quite simply the worst tall building ever constructed in London,” said Ellis Woodman, deputy editor of Building Design and a man who doesn’t mince words. Continued Woodman, scathingly, “A skyscraper is an energy-greedy building form, both in terms of construction and the power needed to take people to their front doors in a lift. To top one off with some wind turbines is the worst sort of greenwashing.”
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By: Yahya Al-saeed
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