At first glance 15 Clerkenwell Close isn’t that bad, almost ignorable. The grid shaped structure is hardly out of step with contemporary offices nor is it massively detrimental to its historical area, despite protests to the contrary.

A second look though and you get a sense of how irritating the design is. It’s a dangerous combination of quirky and pretentious that veers too close to ruin-porn for a luxury office and flat in Central London.

The prominent stone facade could possibly be called quirky. But the cobbled together application of found parts with polished and rougher elements is more jarring than to the eye though and asks the question “why?” rather than presenting a confident intent of design. The way the stone protrudes out from the rest of the building as well feels eerily reminiscent of 2013’s Carbuncle Cup winner UCL’s student halls on Caledonian Road.…