A Bad building (not one of mine)

Bad as in 'bad smell' not BAD as in 'Michael Jackson'



This is a follow on from yesterdays rant about the state of buildings in Aberdeen. I thought long and hard about whether I should actually publish this photo (horses head on the pillow, ostracised by the local RIAS chapter, "you'll never work in this town") But I concluded that this building was just too awful to keep to myself. (and nobody reads my blog anyway so I'm pretty safe)


I did ask some acquaintances in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow whether they knew of a worse building in their respective cities and nobody has thus far come up with a less delightful specimen. If by some miracle someone actually reads this and knows of a bigger monstrosity, please feel free to send it my way.

Terrible Architecture in Aberdeen

Aberdeen has some truly terrible buildings!

I know Architects from Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and London and they snigger whenever they visit Aberdeen. Is that what we have been reduced to? A laughing stock?

Oil company headquarters are amongst the worst buildings, fake mock schlock victoriana haciendas swimming in acres of tarmac in the once glorious west end. Mega pavilions of cheap, glitzy anonymity slotted into faceless, lifeless out of town business parks.

I spend a great deal of time annoying my wife by talking about 'how I could do this building or that building a whole lot better than the joker who was chosen to screw it up'. Why do clients choose Architects? what are the criteria? Is it just about money? One example is the new fox lane garden centre at Westhill - Not a truly terrible building by any standards but a real missed opportunity; why is there so much opposing geometry? why didn't the designer pick up on the archetype of the polytunnel or glasshouse and run with it? That building could have been so much more. Don't even get me started on the exhibition centre!

The worst part of the story is that for the most part, the monstrous creations are the work of local practices who should know better. My plea to any potential clients thinking of hiring one of the many substandard designers peddling their generic crap is please, please, please, for the good of the city, give one of the many design based practices a call.

Birds nest

I discovered today that we have a sparrows nest in our dormer window. I had heard some wee scratching noises in the roof space and thought the worst - Rats! but while doing a spot of gardening this morning I saw a sparrow squeeze through a space under the dormer soffit.

Why am I relieved to discover that the noises were in fact small birds? is it that they are much cuter than rats? is it that sparrows don't suffer from the old 'black death' tag (hard to shake). whatever the reason, I am secretly pleased and slightly chuffed that this little family has chosen to share my house. Stupid I know.