March 2020 | Eyesore

Commentary on architectural blunders in monthly serial.

Behold the Universita Luigi Bocconi, School of Economics, Milan, Italy by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, principals of Grafton Architects, Dublin, Ireland, winners of this year’s Pritzker prize. The Pritzker is considered the most prestigious prize in the architectural world. The Pritzker committee is crazy for Orwellian dystopias, and this one does it all: the despotic blank walls enfronting the street, the fortress-like parti, the bureaucratic esprit! Note especially that the design expresses absolutely no elements of femininity — no curves, no ornament, no ‘grace notes.’

You go, girls!

Below are shots of the team’s other projects. Dreariness abides!

Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Trinity College, Dublin

Loreto Community School – Milford, Co. Donegal, Ireland

President’s House, University of Limerick, Ireland