Published: Tuesday, 24th June, 2008 10:25
Monstrous carbuncles
By Observer
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I'VE never thought Prince Charles deserved to be listened to.
Anyone with ears like his, who talks to plants, whose family should probably be sectioned, who can't boil an egg and whose dress sense is, well, let's leave it at that...
It was 24 years ago that he went off on his infamous "monstrous carbuncle" rant about modern British architecture.
I ignored him at the time, partly because he was talking principally about buildings in London but mainly because it was he who was talking. Now, I reckon he had a point.
Here's some of what he said:
"What I believe is important about community architecture is that it has shown ordinary people that their views are worth having; that architects and planners do not necessarily have the monopoly of knowing best about taste, style and planning."
He went on, as he does, to quote Goethe: "There is nothing more dreadful than imagination without taste."
That's enough of Charlie. Hands up if you think whoever designed the extension to the Kingsgate centre in Dunfermline had even a passing acquaintance with taste.
Drive along Carnegie Drive and tell me that what you see was designed by someone who knows best about taste, style and planning.
Convince me that it has made a positive contribution to Dunfermline's city scape.
You can't, can you? Because the Kingsgate extension, at least as seen from Carnegie Drive, is completely devoid of saving graces.
It's brutal, in-your-face and ugly and were it not for the fact that the building is a development Dunfermline sorely needs I suspect there would be a vociferous campaign for its immediate demolition.
For now, folk in West Fife are glad that at least something is happening in the city centre.
But mark my words: in a few years' time people will be openly asking, as I do now, how on earth we came to allow such a monstrosity to be built.
You'd think we'd learn. Thirty-odd years ago someone thought it was a good idea to build three massive blocks of flats in a village; Kincardine's high-rises would be pulled down today if alternative accommodation were available for their residents.
Work started in 1958 on blocks of flats and maisonettes in Trondheim Parkway, Dunfermline. Less than 40 years later the Press launched its 'Street of Shame' series and the most ill-conceived homes in Dunfermline were subsequently demolished.
Someone must have thought it a good idea to build Fraser Avenue in Inverkeithing, a street which at least one councillor says should never have been built and should probably be demolished.
There's a common theme in all these structures: their size, their total lack of aesthetic appeal and the fact that they were, believe it or not, designed. By architects.
Word has it that the new health centre in Linburn Road, just yards from the site of our 'Street of Shame', was designed too. By architects. Really?
I've never been inside though I bet its interior is smashing and that it's making a positive contribution to health care in Dunfermline.
But externally, it's hideous, its appalling brown colour contriving to detract from whatever architectural merit the building has. Did they run out of paint? Or taste?
Like the Kingsgate extension, its ugliness is compounded by the fact that it's right up against one of the busiest roads in the city.
It's hard to miss and, call us naive if you like, but shouldn't hard-to-miss buildings be, well, nice looking?
By the way, my lugs aren't what you would call small and my yucca plant and I get along quite well these days...
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