Is this really the world's ugliest building?
The Ryugyong Hotel in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, has had an unfortunate start in life. Construction of the 105 storey, 330 metre high building, the 47th tallest in the world, commenced in 1987 and it's still not finished.
But there are plans for it to open to guests, albeit in scaled-down form, in the near future.
It was victim to an economic downturn in the country, and reports of poor construction and the use of inferior materials—like that comes as a surprise?
But I think that the criticism of its design is a little excessive:
It was voted "Worst Building in the History of Mankind" by Esquire magazine in 2008. The American publication called it "hideously ugly, even by communist standards."
Personally, I think it looks like something out of Thunderbirds or Flash Gordon, and for that it is to be commended!
I can't say that I'd want to stay there though.
