UK’s ugliest new building could be in Holloway for second year running - ‘winner’ announced tomorrow morning
The QN7 flats near Arsenal's Emirates stadium are in the running for ugliest new building in London - Credit: Archant
Britain’s ugliest new building could be in Islington for the second year in a row.
The QN7 flats, in Queensland Road, Holloway, near the Emirates Stadium, is in the final six for the Carbuncle Cup - awarded to the country’s unloveliest new construction by architect magazine Building Design (BD).
Judges, who make their final decision tomorrow morning at 6am, described the block as “terrible, but ordinarily so “and “aggressive, oppressive and incoherent.”
Another said: “This is one of the worst examples of residential design. It’s incoherent and gross over-development and has helped Arsenal become very profitable.”
The flats are a shared ownership scheme designed by architects CZWG and contain 173 one and two bedroom flats.
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A reader of the BD nominated the new block,
They said: “Whilst the Emirates Stadium was hardly a wonderful area prior to development, the sheer arrogance of this development, with vast multi-storey circular towers of gold and blue cladding causes a migraine to anyone passing or indeed unlucky enough to live in the traditional London terraced houses next door that are now dwarfed by them.
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“There’s little context around there due to the masterplan of the stadium but even so this is just architecture by numbers – let’s stick on a balcony here, have an inset balcony there, change the cladding colour round this bit, have a weird circular penthouse thing on top.
“It turns its back on the roads nearby, offers no permeability for pedestrians and creates a windy, soulless private street.”
Last year’s winner of the architectural wooden spoon was a multi-million pound block of University College London student accommodation in Caledonian Road, Holloway.
