Schemes by PLP and Ian Simpson’s practice head up a six-strong shortlist for this year’s Carbuncle Cup.

The competition, run by Building’s sister title BD, was launched in 2006 and is awarded to the “ugliest building in the UK completed in the last 12 months”.

Previous winners of architecture’s wooden spoon have included Media City at Salford by a number of architects including Wilkinson Eyre and Chapman Taylor, Grimshaw’s Cutty Sark renovation and Rafael Vinoly’s Walkie Talkie building.

Nova Victoria Carbuncle Cup

PLP’s Nova Victoria scheme

 

PLP’s entry is for the Nova mixed-use scheme in London’s Victoria which has been masterminded by developer Landsec while Simpson’s practice, Simpson Haugh, is behind a 17-storey mixed-use development at Battersea Power Station called Circus West. Longer than the Shard when laid on its side, the scheme includes 800 apartments.

Others to make it on to the shortlist include an extension to a private house in Malvern, Worcestershire, and a new entrance to Preston railway station.

The winner will be announced next Wednesday. Judges include Catherine Croft, director of heritage group the Twentieth Century Society, and planner and urbanist David Rudlin, whose firm Urbed won the 2014 Wolfson Prize.

 

The 2017 shortlist

Nova Victoria by PLP Architecture

Preston Railway Station Butler St entrance by AHR

Greethan Street Student Halls by Cooley Architecture

8 Somers Road, Malvern by Vivid Architects

Circus West, Battersea Power Station by Simpson Haugh

Park Plaza London Waterloo by ESA Architecture

Battersea Carbuncle Cup

The Circus West scheme at Battersea Power Station