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Our top 5 ugliest office buildings

Design, General information September 18th 2017
Our top 5 ugliest office buildings

In the spirit of bad design, we present - in no particular order - our top 5 ugliest office buildings award.

1. Nova Victoria, Victoria - This truly astonishing building - dubbed a "bright red hideous mess" and a "bright red preening cockerel" - is definitely different. Being the first thing commuters clap eyes on when emerging from Victoria station, this hot-red mess of a building sees London win the Carbuncle Cup for the sixth year straight.

2. The Walkie Talkie, City of London - Love it or loathe it, this top-heavy blot on the landscape and past winner of the Carbuncle Cup has just broken the world record for the world's most expensive building, selling for £1.3bn and making a 167% profit.

3. The MI6 Building, Vauxhall - This is what happens when you have to keep compromising your design, but this wedding cake meets fortress built from Lego is a very special kind of ugly.

4. Strata, Elephant and Castle - Like a giant electric razor, the Strata dominates the skyline of South London and is truly hideous. A good idea - the Strata features built-in wind turbines to generate a portion of its own electricity - though horribly executed.

5. Broadgate, London - Be careful what you wish for. For those who bemoan skyscrapers, behold the behemoth that is 5 Broadgate - a sprawling groundscraper built to house USB financial services. It certainly has Ugly Building Syndrome.

Why great interior design matters

There may be nothing you can do about the exterior of your building, but great interior design is vitally important as it impacts directly on staff satisfaction and productivity. This is the place where your workforce spend most of their working hours so it needs to be somewhere they want to be as well as somewhere they have to be.

In the era of lean and agile working, good furniture design is more important than ever so invest in a modular office with office chairs that can be used behind a desk or in a breakout area. Ergonomic chairs are relatively inexpensive compared to a few years ago and we believe that everybody forced to do a desk job deserves one!

Successful businesses, however big or small, invest in great interior design for the office to keep their staff both healthy and creative. At office reality we are all about office interiors, so check out our website for an idea of our office furniture offering and then contact a member of our design ream who will be able to visualise your space using the latest in 3d visitation technology.

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