The Scottish Parliament has been crowned the world’s ugliest and most despised building in a new poll.
The list, curated by Buildworld, identified the ‘most maligned buildings in the world’ as judged by the language that people are using about them on Twitter.
Having drawn up a long list of 68 buildings from around the world “that are often said to be ugly”, Buildworld then identified all the design-themed tweets about these buildings on Twitter, before analysing the percentage of tweets that were negative about each building’s design.
The research led Buildworld to conclude that The Scottish Parliament is the World's Most-Despised Building, with 42.07 per cent of tweets about it criticising the building's design.
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About The Scottish Parliament, Buildword noted: “Opening three years later than planned and four years after the death of its architect, the Scottish Parliament Building leads the list of global buildings considered to be awful.
"The project was unpopular from the start, as a national building designed by a foreign architect that quickly spiralled ten times over budget and way beyond its deadline.
“The building looks out of place in the Scottish landscape, apart from its unwelcoming entrance, which is ‘dark and gloomy, particularly in our climate’ and ‘feels like a cave’ according to former MP and chair of Glasgow’s Festival of Architecture and Design, Des McNulty.”
The brutalist J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington D.C. was named as the second ugliest building in the world, with 37.84 per cent of tweets about it criticising the building's design.
In third place was Newport Train Station in Newport, Wales, which was criticised in 25.73% of tweets, ahead of Boston City Hall and Preston Train Station in fourth and fifth place respectively.
Joining them in the top 10 were the Verizon Building in New York, The Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang (aka ‘The Hotel of Doom’), The Watergate complex in Washington D.C., Denver International Airport and Trump Tower in Las Vegas.
Only one other Scottish building features in the 68-strong list in the Radisson Collection Hotel, located on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.
To view the full list, click here
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