Vote: Which Cardiff Uni building is truly the worst?

It’s the ASSL for me


Why did you decide to come to Cardiff Uni? The rugby, the course, the nightlife? Most likely it wasn’t due to the beauty of the buildings.

I have scoured the uni to find the ugliest university building that Cardiff has to offer, so you don’t have to. Vote at the end for which you think is categorically the worst.

The Temple of Peace

With a name coming right out of an Indiana Jones film, built in 1937 just before WW2, the Temple of Peace is a confusing building. Amid the beautiful Bute and Glamorgan buildings the Temple of Peace looks somewhat out of place. Neither beautiful nor ugly, the Temple of Peace is just like a maths student…painfully average.

The ASSL

With all the grace and decorum of a multi-storey car park, the ASSL is one of the most monstrously ugly buildings the uni has to offer. There is no surprise that you have to enter a gate to get a full-frontal view of this obscene eyesore. The ASSL is to Cardiff what psychology is to STEM, everyone accepts that it’s there, but no one actually respects it. Going to the ASSL for its beauty is like going to University Halls for its proximity to uni, you just don’t.

Redwood Building

If you wander down Corbett Road towards Bute Park, you would be mistaken for thinking you’d stumbled upon a prison block. Worry not, it’s only Redwood, otherwise known as the Pharmacy Building. While not the worst offender on this list, Redwood still looks pretty horrendous. With all the beauty of a detention city there’s no wonder that this eyesore is hidden behind a mass of trees. Even when uni is functional you rarely see a pharmacy student about; I don’t blame them tbh… if Redwood was my building I don’t think I’d want to go into uni either.

Tower Building

Better known as the Psychology Building, the Tower Building stands high above the Cardiff University campus like a stain on a student’s mattress. The building stands tall to represent a psychology students pride in telling you that they study a STEM subject. This hideous building is appropriately named ‘the Tower’ because the person that designed it should be locked up.

Law Building

While the Tower Building acts as a metaphorical stain on Cardiff Uni, the exterior of the Law Building is covered in limestone stained by constant Cardiff rainwater. Law Building in my opinion is a top contender for the ugliest building at Cardiff Uni, and just like law students themselves it takes up far more space than it needs. There’s no need for the Law Building to take up that much of Park Place, especially when it looks that shit.

Sir Martin Evans Building

The Sir Martin Evans Building, better known as the Biomed Building, may look good from the side with the addition of those multi-coloured hexagons and glass panels, but when you go round the back of the building is where the true horror lies. Looking like the unholy child of an abandoned block of flats and a disused car park, the Sir Martin Evans is as beautiful as the queues for Juice are short.

Maths Building

The Maths Building has to be situated on a completely different section of Cathays from the rest of the main buildings on this list because it looks that bad. It has all the personality of a maths student…very little and takes up far more space than is needed. There’s no surprise that the Maths Building is being relocated because it’s a crime something that bland and soulless should be allowed for teaching. It’s no wonder maths students are seen to be so boring… if I had to study in something that lifeless and dull I would lose all personality myself.

Now you’ve heard my opinions on these horrific Cardiff Uni buildings it is now up to you to decide just which one is should be crowned Cardiff University’s ugliest building:

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Quiz: Which Cathays pub are you?

• What does the Cathays street you live on say about you?

• Pubs of Cathays: Political Party Edition