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Public spaces are, well, public, and whether we’re talking about the streets we walk on, the buildings we live in, or the monuments standing between them, the very least we’re entitled to is having opinions. However, people might have a different vision of what belongs where.
What an architect or artist might think is a bold statement can sometimes feel excessive and out of place to others. So we went around a few popular discussions on r/AskTheWorld where folks have been sharing the structures in their countries they hate the most, and here are some of the most talked-about “bad ideas” locals just can’t stop complaining about.
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If we look at what experts are saying about the topic, there’s a recent survey that gives a good sense of how people in the field see things.
The survey, The State of Public Space in 2025, invited a wide community of public‑space professionals — planners, designers, place managers, public officials, artists, researchers, activists — to share their views, with over 700 respondents from 57 countries contributing their insights.
The biggest takeaway, according to the researchers, was that only 5% of respondents felt that public spaces are actually meeting community needs.
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#2
Scotland
Glasgow tower. The world's tallest, fully rotating tower. £10m. Doesn't work. Never open. Sometimes goes on fire.
#3
United Kingdom
The Headington Shark, Oxford
It was installed by local radio DJ Bill Heine. He installed it without planning permission and there was 20 year war of letters. Now the council has recognised it as a local landmark.
Nearly 12% of respondents identified “aging infrastructure” as one of the top issues facing public space. When we talk about aging infrastructure, we often think of roads and bridges first, but public spaces are part of our civic infrastructure too — the shared places that support community health, resilience, and local economies.
Because of that, public spaces need funding models that provide steady, reliable support over time, rather than big bursts of money followed by long dry spells.
#6
Canada
This building in Vancouver is my personal vote. It just looks to me like an extra heavy gust of wind would knock it over...
And the term “models” is used because aging infrastructure and underperforming public spaces aren’t only about money. After funding for capital improvements and operations, respondents cited political will and bureaucracy as the biggest practical issues facing public space, together accounting for a striking 31% of responses.
On top of that, mental health crises, biohazards, maintenance problems, reduced access, and fear of crime — whether supported by data or not — have become an increasingly common and troubling part of many public areas. As a result, 12% of respondents pointed to homelessness as one of the top issues facing public spaces today.
#7
Netherlands
Supposed to be santa claus.
#8
Finland
A town elected to build a fountain for 10k, this was the result. After coruption discussions it achived meme status and people travel to see how small it is
Roman Arendt 2 days ago
Never order from Temu. But if you think you must, always look up the dimensions.
#9
Norway
This nightmare fuel.
Much like social isolation, extreme weather has created a vicious cycle for public spaces that needs to be broken. As hotter summers, polar vortex events, and growing risks of fires, storms, and floods hit cities around the world, public spaces become less accessible and less comfortable, feeding into what some call the Human Doom Loop.
However, while international respondents to the survey ranked climate change as their second‑highest priority at 12%, American public‑space professionals placed it much lower — sixth overall, at only 8%.
#10
West Java
Our beloved
#11
Norway
11,5 meter tall ... in Stange, paid for with taxpayer money of course.
#12
Spain
Restoration of Ecce Homo
Bill Swallow 1 day ago
You keep using this word 'Restoration'. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Then there’s gentrification, which 11% of respondents listed as a major concern, mostly because it leads to displacement. Since public spaces have such a strong impact on quality of life, even well‑intended improvements can set off ripple effects in real estate and local demographics. These changes can support a community, but they can also disrupt it — both economically and culturally.
Existing residents may get priced out as the cost of living rises, but just as important is the fading sense of belonging that comes with shifting cultural offerings and new social dynamics, including hostile behavior like targeted noise complaints.
So while it’s easy to blame individual structures for harming our public spaces, it’s usually the bigger picture we need to look at first.
#13
Brazil
The Marge Simpson building
Asmodeus Hare 1 day ago
I would have called it the Blue Barrel... But yeah it has all the colors of Marge in her iconic dress.
#15
Spain
Roundabout of the Peacocks, Jaén.
#16
Russia
Shemyakin's Peter the Great statue. The proportions are like he's from a yaoi manga
Liliana Spiro 1 day ago
Makes me think of those shrunken head characters from Beetlejuice sitting in the waiting room :)
#17
Brazil
On São Paulo’s Faria Lima Avenue, often called the Brazilian equivalent of Wall Street, a large office building installed a quirky whale sculpture on its façade.
This Christmas, they topped it with a festive hat that ended up looking a bit suspicious.
#19
India
This fish building from hyderabad
#20
Finland
This. Was over 100t euros. It's supposed to shoot a red beam to the sky and glow in Red when it's dark, but it never really does, or that I have seen.
#21
Goiania
O punhetão, aka, the wankerer, in goiania.
#22
USA
A 516ft/157m wide emoji
Willem Andries Oosterhof 1 day ago
This is just one of the many projection on which is essentially one giant television. It's looking magnificent. There are plans to build equivalent structures in other cities as well, among them London.
#23
USA
There is a gilded fiberglass statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest off Highway 65 in Tennessee, just south of Nashville
#24
Canada
Crowds will gather around this “historic landmark” to hear to it whistle *BOOOOOO booooooo* while a lil steam comes out the top. Vancouver’s top tourist attraction, apparently.
Trip Martin 2 days ago
I love the Gastown steam clock. And , if I remember correctly it does keep time.
#25
India
We recently erected this 70 ft statue of Lionel Messi
It was unveiled during his 3 day tour to India on which $36 million were reportedly spent.
Meanwhile, our national football team continues to suffer from a lack of public support, infrastructure and funds due to corruption.
Howl's sleeping castle 1 day ago
It was dismantled for safety concerns, after it was spotted swaying in the wind.
#26
Lithuania
I present to you this beautiful art installation in the capital of Lithuania.
#27
USA
How about the Boll Weevil Monument in Alabama? Yes that is a sculpture of a woman holding a traffic cone with a boll weevil on top. Why would they have a monument of a bug that eats cotton?
#28
Canada
My hometown Niagara Falls is full of this stuff. Exhibit A, Frankenstein eating Burger King
ABC NrEleven FCK CENSORISM 1 day ago
It looks like an amusement park, not like a normal town 🫣
#29
USA
In the Southeastern US, we have the ugly Confederate monument on Stone Mountain in Georgia.
#30
USA
This monstrosity
Bill Swallow 1 day ago
It was an attempt to honor the legacy of former President Jimmy Carter, who at one point in his life was a peanut farmer. As the saying goes, 'An attempt was made'.
#31
Canada
The big nickel in Sudbury.
#32
Argentina
The egg monument in Buenos Aires. It has another name and symbolism, but nobody cares, it is an egg. Like the cloud gate in Chicago that is the bean (and the bean is amazing. Not the cloud gate)
The funny thing is that I'm always thinking what could happen if it rolls downhill the street. I think that almost everyone is going to check it and push it a little bit.
#33
Estonia
Our war of independence victory column. I don't know how people feel about it these days but it was widely panned when it was built in 2009 because of how hideous it looks up close. It also kept falling apart and needed constant repairs.
Russell Bowman 2 days ago
If you ever get to Tallinn ... find the broken line ferry monument. Clean structure but very moving meaning ...
#34
Poland
For my city (Szczecin) that would be removed now Fryga statue.
Bill Swallow 1 day ago
... They raided this insulator stack from the high-voltage equipment section of a mad scientist's lab, didn't they?
#36
Poland
Wrocław has something similar to Dublin.
Iglica is a communist monument for Poland regaining control over the formerly German “Recovered Territories”, built in 1948.
Wiles Anonim 1 day ago
"Hala Stulecia"(“Centennial Hall"). This building was used as the main arena in the movie “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.”
#37
USA
This Statue of Lenin displayed on a prominent streetcorner in the Freemont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.
It's on private property and is held in a private trust, so the city government lacks authority to remove it. And it's become a landmark in the Freemont neighborhood.
The statue was originally put on display in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in 1988--but was soon trashed during the wave of de-Leninization in Eastern Europe (the "Velvet Revolution").
A U.S. English teacher came across this Lenin statue in a scrapyard in Slovakia, with a homeless person living inside of it. He purchased the statue and shipped it to the USA in 1993. It moved around a bit, but has been in its current Freemont location since 1996.
#38
Germany
Behold
Bill Swallow 1 day ago
Someone alert Constable Odo! One of the shapeshifting 'Founders' has infiltrated Earth again!
#39
Genova
Roundabout of the tuna.
#40
USA
Sterling Heights, Michigan snuck a $335,000 "sculpture" past the taxpayers a few years ago, and they immediately started calling it the "Golden Hole".
Rick Murray 1 day ago
Oh, I've seen those things in GTA. You're supposed to jump cars through them.
#42
Canada
My city has a lot of weird local art, nothing famous nationally though.
#45
Canada
This stupid ring in Montreal that used 5 million dollars of tax payer money.
#46
USA
"cloudgate" aka the chicago bean, by anish kapoor
Bill Swallow 1 day ago
I have it on good authority from Jim Butcher that you really don't want to know what's inside it.
#48
India
This thing. The most useless expenditure of money in a third world country.
That’s all I yam 1 day ago (edited)
"The Statue of Unity is the world's tallest statue, with a height of 182 metres (597 feet), located in Narmada valley, near Kevadia in the state of Gujarat, India. It depicts Indian politician and independence activist Sardar Patel (1875–1950), who was the first deputy prime minister and home minister of independent India. Patel played a significant role in the political integration of India." (Statue of Unity, Wikipedia)
#49
France
Idk about the worst, but this residential bar in my hometown always trips me out. Looks like the architect just unlocked the washing machine skin and really wanted to use it.
#50
Mexico
La Estela de Luz in Mexico City. Also known as "la Suavicrema" after a type of wafer cookie popular here, This aberration is 104 meters tall.
#51
Canada
This electronic art installation in a TTC subway station. As far as I’m aware, it’s still not activated, eight years after the station opened.
Elladine DesIsles 2 days ago
"LightSpell", a public art installation at Pioneer Village Station on the TTC's line 1, which is on the border between the cities of Toronto and Vaughan and opened as part of a major expansion in 2017. The piece was designed to be an interactive display of up-to-eight-chatacter text messages submitted by passengers using touchscreen access points, but was never activated out of concern that patrons would post inappropriate content (as a lifelong Torontonian, yes, many absolutely would). Negotiations with the artists have failed to find a compromise allowing it to be used in some fashion. Cost, $1.9 million.
#52
England
I was going to say the Bude tunnel, but as I look at it, it's magnificence truly is striking.
#54
Republic Of Korea
Since people are posting statues of people they dislike even if they look fine on the basis of what they represent, here's my entry.
Thankfully, we destroyed it. It's gone now.
Geobugi🇰🇷🇰🇭 1 day ago
This is the general gouvernment of japan building in korea, build in front of the kings palace to demonstrate their power over the korean people. It is considered as a big " we are better than you" sign and therefore not loved by koreans. Nothing wrong with the building, only what it stands for. It is gone for about 30 years now. A bit information would have helped here 🤣
What do you think ?
Bored Jellyfish 1 day ago
I was hoping that Denver airport’s Blucifer- the giant glowing-red-eyed anatomically-detailed mustang (the horse, not the car) that k****d its own creator- would’ve made the list.
Kevin Hickey 23 hours ago
As a person whose tax money is used to drop bombs on people, keep people in jail and further enrich the already obscenely wealthy, I'd have to say that I'd rather have my tax money go to any of these projects.
Bored Jellyfish 1 day ago
I was hoping that Denver airport’s Blucifer- the giant glowing-red-eyed anatomically-detailed mustang (the horse, not the car) that k****d its own creator- would’ve made the list.
Kevin Hickey 23 hours ago
As a person whose tax money is used to drop bombs on people, keep people in jail and further enrich the already obscenely wealthy, I'd have to say that I'd rather have my tax money go to any of these projects.
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