Carbuncle Cup

The Carbuncle Cup is an architecture prize, given annually, originally by the magazine Building Design, and since 2024 by The Fence, to "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months".

[1] It was intended to be a humorous response to the prestigious Stirling Prize,[2] given by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

[4] The name derives from a comment in 1984 by Charles, Prince of Wales (now Charles III), an opponent of certain modernist styles and forms and a staunch defender of existing characterisations, themes and points of interest, who described Ahrends, Burton and Koralek's proposed extension of London's National Gallery as a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend".

[5][6] The cup was launched in 2006, with the first winner being Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth by Chapman Taylor.

Free voting via the magazine's website was at first used to select the winner.