Which is the UGLIEST Building on Campus?

We love Highfield campus. With its open green spaces, babbling brooks and pretty ponds, it’s a pretty nice place to study. Of course, with continual expansion over the past 60 years, campus has some pretty awful architecture too.

Back in 2010, in the Soton Tab’s infancy, we asked our (approximately 10) readers: which building is campus’ worst eyesore? They answered, with 68% of the vote, that the Maths Tower is the worst building to grace our campus.

Now we’re updating our question for 2013. We’ve drawn up a shortlist from Tab writers’ suggestions. What features below is our bottom 5 of Highfield Campus.

Maths. Like the Eurovision song contest and the World Cup, if you win the previous time you automatically make it through the following year. This allegedly maritime-inspired carbuncle dominates the northern part of campus.

Its only maritime influence is an oil rig

Faraday. Evidently Sir Basil Spence loved concrete and couldn’t design a skyscraper to save his life. Faraday is shaped like a World War 2 German hand grenade and about as stable. Prior to its closure in 2006, a strong gust of wind would jam the lifts in their shafts and the whole building would sway. Due its size, it can’t be knocked down. The restoration effort shows no sign of being completed anytime soon either.

This monolith dominates the Southampton skyline

The Nuffield Theatre. Described by some as a “bomb shelter” this theatre probably looked good when it was built. Unfortunately the copper roof hasn’t aged well and it now looks like it wouldn’t be out of place in Atlantis.

Definitely in need of some TLC

Murray. This labyrinthine cube nestles in below the Maths Tower and is even linked to the mother ship by a glass corridor. Not only ugly as sin, this building’s rooms are erratically numbered, leading many a student on a wild goose chase around its corridors.

A face not even a mother could love

Wind tunnel. Hidden away behind the very attractive Life Sciences building, this shack houses some very expensive kit in the form of a high tech wind testing centre. Despite high profile customers including Formula One team, Olympians and the British Cycling Squad, evidently there wasn’t enough room in the budget to make the exterior look like anything other than a garden shed.

Corrugated iron just screams “advanced research facility”

Now have your say! Vote in our poll below and give us your reasoning in the comments. We’ll tally up the votes and present the University with a trophy to commemorate this prestigious award.