#Architalks #30 #Ugly

This post is part of the ArchiTalks series where a group of us (architects who also blog) all post on the same day and promote each other’s blogs. The Topic ‘Leader’ for this post ‘Ugly’ is Jeremiah Russell.

I am a massive fan of the Instagram feed ‘Ugly Belgian Houses’ and if you’re not following them then you should!

As an infrequent visitor to Belgium (I was there in 2014 on a pilgrimage to the cycling (big fan) nirvana of the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) where the infamous cobbled climb of the Koppenburg beat me into walking up):

And while I was there I noted the lovely Belgian houses and their tasteful design and detailing (below is an example):

Little was I to know that this loveliness was the exception rather than the rule and that there was a web site dedicated to the Ugly Belgian Houses, the feed is shown below:

But what’s interesting now that I’ve been following this for a while is that:

1. There are some God dam ugly houses in there. What is going on with this one for example:

2. But some of the more ‘architectural’ houses are in my humble opinion absolutely brilliant. This one for example:

What this tells us is that there is a broad range on what people consider plain, ugly, quirky, truly horrendous and down right disgusting. The problem is that peoples’ tastes vary so widely; we can see this in the ‘pretty’ houses that they own and it seems to be especially true that architects have a taste of their own that many would consider ugly.

I’m looking forward to reading what the other bloggers have written on what they consider is ugly. Or not.

Comments as always welcome…

To read how the other ‘blogging architects’ have interpreted this theme click the links below:

Lee Calisti, AIA – Think Architect (@LeeCalisti)
ugly is ugly

Lora Teagarden – L² Design, LLC (@L2DesignLLC)
Ugly Architecture Details

Jeremiah Russell, AIA – ROGUE Architecture (@rogue_architect)
unsuccessful, not ugly: #architalks

Eric T. Faulkner – Rock Talk (@wishingrockhome)
Ugly is in The Details

Michele Grace Hottel – Michele Grace Hottel, Architect (@mghottel)
Ugly

Brian Paletz – The Emerging Architect (@bpaletz)
Ugly, sloppy, and wrong – oh my!

Eric Wittman – intern[life] (@rico_w)
[ugly] buildings [ugly] people

Jeffrey Pelletier – Board & Vellum (@boardandvellum)
Is My House Ugly? If You Love It, Maybe Not!

Kyu Young Kim – J&K Atelier (@sokokyu)
Ugly

Nisha Kandiah – ArchiDragon (@ArchiDragon)
the ugly truth

Keith Palma – Architect’s Trace (@cogitatedesign)
Behold

Jim Mehaffey – Yeoman Architect (@jamesmehaffey)
A Little Ugly Never Hurt Anyone

Ilaria Marani – Creative Aptitude (@creaptitude)
ArchiTalks #30: Ugly

Larry Lucas – Lucas Sustainable, PLLC (@LarryLucasArch)
Die Hard: 7 Ugly Sins Killing Your Community