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Aberdeen: Where architecture goes to die


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I think Aberdeen looks fantastic on a sunny day. But the granite buildings make it look like a soulless dump on a rainy, dull day.

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Don't get me wrong, Aberdeen 200-300 years ago probably was the 'bonnie' city in Scotland. It's just a shithole now though. One of the most depressing places in Scotland barring the Wicker Man style places that crop up Scotland.

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I think Aberdeen looks fantastic on a sunny day. But the granite buildings make it look like a soulless dump on a rainy, dull day.

Aye this is it. Aberdeen has these incredible crystal clear, blue sky days, where the granite sparkles and the city looks amazing. Rest of the time, meh.

Don't think the finest city in the North East deserves this award but if it shits in the biscuit tin of those morons at ACC, then I'm all for it.

The new library at the Uni is a bit snazzy is it not?

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Aberdeen is the classic case of a privately rich and publicly poor town. Most residents moan to f**k about the centre of town being awful but ask them to give up some of their money to improve things and it's likely go be baulked out into the long grass.

This Marischal Square development sums up the last 50 years of town planning. Quite happy to shaft the public good, beautiful buildings and excellent Victorian/Edwardian era planning of the city forefathers for the commercial shilling. Sadly things will only get worse in the city as Union Street and the town centre turns ever further into a depressing shit hole.

The cleanup of Marischal College has left it in stunning glory, and I would fully support the clean up of buildings on the main drag like the Music Hall and Town House to breathe some life into a tired town. Sadly the boat has long since sailed planning wise with the ridiculous hotchpotch of buildings in the city centre.

But hey, so long as people have 3 Audis in the drive, they're happy in Aberdeen.

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post-12982-0-57423300-1413847803.jpg

my sister, an Aberdeen resident, described the new Uni library as "a fucking borg cube" and I tend to agree with her. It has to be said that I'm sure the old QML won an architectural award but I found it a bit shoddily built- the floors used to rattle a bit.

I was a student in Aberdeen in the early 1990s and quite enjoyed being there- Aberdeen seemed to have escaped some of the worst excesses of the 1960s and 1970s that knackered Dundee, Glasgow, Edinburgh and other places but it looks as if the council are now catching up.

The triple kirks site has been empty since before I started at Uni and looking at the plans they should just go the whole hog and blow up the bloody remaining spire. It's also pretty disgraceful to look at what they are going to stick on top of the Art Gallery. Down here in Edinburgh I passed the Usher Hall the other day and had a good look at the extension they built on to it a few years ago- it's a glass carbuncle that looks awful. The refurbishment of the Usher Hall was done well and the extra space is handy but this extension is simply awful to look at. I sometimes wonder if modern architects plans for additions to old buildings are the equivalent of drawing a willie on the Mona Lisa.

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Oddly I actually quite like the new UoA library.

The Triple Kirks site should just be cleaned up but no one will do that unless they get some return on the site. Building offices seems to be the way to do that but surely someone can come up with something better that what is going in there?

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The problem with Aberdeen is the granite. If the city was made of sandstone and had a few more parks in the city centre it would be one of the most beautiful places in the UK. I had an internship in the council's planning department last year and they have some pretty good ideas for improving the city centre but no money to achieve it. Not enough strong leadership from above is also a problem. Can't wait to get out of here once I graduate as it is pretty bleak.

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Thousands of pounds a month to rent a box room above a takeaway? No thanks.

The rental market in Aberdeen is bad but it's not that bad. You are either exaggerating or are being badly ripped off.

Aberdeen is the classic case of a privately rich and publicly poor town. Most residents moan to f**k about the centre of town being awful but ask them to give up some of their money to improve things and it's likely go be baulked out into the long grass.

But hey, so long as people have 3 Audis in the drive, they're happy in Aberdeen.

Yeah, think this is fair. There's plenty of anger from residents, sure, but they never seem to do anything about it.

Aberdeen is not as bad as people say it is, and can be a great city when it's sunny, but I've spent less than a year there and already consider this too much.

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It's when 13 people turn up to the first viewing, all offer over the extortionate asking price for a bang average flat with single glazing windows, when you realise it will be a struggle.

Go and spare room and share the pain.

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I liked living in Aberdeen. In fact I'm looking to move up next year. Really like the place.

For shit 'architecture' check the monstrosity thst was put up beside the bus station in Dunfermline.

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Not a fan at all of the plans for Triple Kirks. Quite a few of the new buildings in Aberdeen look terrible; Union Square looks shit (although to be fair, shopping in Aberdeen in general is shit) but apart from the Boots, Cotsworld, Cineworld and all the restaurants, Union Square is basically a shopping centre for trendy kids.

A few of the Student housing looks horrible, especially to two on King Street (the one across from the Uni and the one next to the First Bus garage).

Then of course we've got the plans for the new AECC :unsure:

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