Carbuncle Awards

The Carbuncle Awards are architecture prizes, given by the Scottish magazine Urban Realm, formerly Prospect, presented to buildings and areas in Scotland intermittently since 2000.

They were established following a discussion about why policy initiatives to improve the quality of the built environment seemed to be having so little impact beyond the centres of Scotland’s key cities.

The name of the awards is derived from a comment by Prince Charles, an outspoken critic of modern architecture, who in 1984 described Ahrends Burton Koralek's proposed extension of London's National Gallery as a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend".

There are three award categories:

Public nominations are made via the magazine's website, with a small group of critics selecting the final winners.

Cumbernauld in Lanarkshire has won the Plook on the Plinth Award twice and is the town most frequently nominated for the award.

The Carbuncle Awards inspired the Carbuncle Cup, another architecture prize launched in 2006 and given annually by Building Design magazine to "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months." The latter has gone on to achieve somewhat greater prominence in the media.