Someone Asks People To Share What Architecture Nightmares They’ve Seen, People Deliver (30 Pics)
Not every architect can be an Antoni Gaudi or an Art Vandalay - some make do with the spaces they are given and yes, some do make silly architecture design mistakes. When the results aren't downright dangerous they can be funny, which is why Twitter user Sarah Schauer decided recently to ask people to send her their worst crappy design/architecture pics that they have.
It's fair to say that the internet didn't disappoint. From oddly placed toilets - toilets seem to feature a lot on this list - to slides that lead to certain death, it turns out that there are some real design fails out there! Scroll down below to see what we mean, and feel free to share your own nightmarish home design examples in the comments!
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Imagine giving directions to your visitors: "Yeah, the toilet is in the kitchen, up the stairs and right next to the cupboard, you won't miss it."
Oh my goodness. Didn't see the toilet until I read your comment 🤣
Load More Replies...Looks like there is a tub in the kitchen as well. Look on the right.
What the hell? That's taking tiny houses a little too far.
Load More Replies...How convenient now you can pee and peel potatoes all at the same time!!!! SO efficient!
Left half kitchen, right half bathroom. It looks like a bathtub in the lower right with the toilet in the upper right. That looks to be a VERY small apartment.
At least they made good use of little space. Wondering how they "manage not doing a nr 2" while cooking! ;-)
All i know that I feel sad by looking at this picture.
Load More Replies...So we've seen the consequences of bad interior design, so what makes for good design? There are a few basic principles to stick to if you want to make sure your design is practical, relevant and makes sense!
According to Dieter Rams, a German industrial designer who was responsible for the design of Braun’s consumer products for many years, there are 10 principles of good design, also known as the '10 commandments.' Even though they were written long ago and technology has advanced beyond his wildest dreams, Dieter's principles still apply today!
It was a church, with stained glass windows. An added floor to turn it into a house. Imagine what it looked like in full-blown church mode.:D
i wonder how long it took the original owners to notice after moving in.... Wife... I love the light in this room.... Husband... you would. lmao
Or "advertisement" to show a kid friendly property.
Load More Replies...Furniture designers Vitsoe have worked closely with Dieter Rams for decades, and helpfully summarize his founding principles of good design with the following explanations:
Good design is innovative: The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.
Good design makes a product useful: A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.
Good design is aesthetic: The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being. But only well-executed objects can be beautiful.
HAHAHAHAHAHA! This is brilliant! Look them straight in the eyes when you wipe!
Hand me that magazine, would ya? "Car and Driver," yep, that's fine.
Load More Replies...This is just terrible, the toilet paper is too far away, who can reach that?
After you use this toilet you'll need to see the chiropractor lol. Maybe it's a toilet for midgets.
Good design makes a product understandable: It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.
Good design is unobtrusive: Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression.
Good design is honest: It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.
Tour guide: "Originally there were only 27 floors in our hotel. The other 13 were added just recently..."
An elevator made for the three kinds of people in this world. Those who can count, and those who can't.
Did you mean two kinds of people? Oohhh, I see what you did there... Lol
Load More Replies...Sometimes I wish I had back stories to these and the reason why these designs are the way they are.
Agree. Though most are easy enough to guess, some are just too bizarre
Load More Replies...It’s actually a shelf meant for displaying things like plants, pottery, etc, not for furniture. It was a common feature in houses built from the mid-to-late 1970s through the early 1990s. I always thought it was a really dumb design, especially since it’s hazardous to try to put something there and then try to clean it once you do.
I know what you mean. They build these things all the time but it's still stupid. No sunlight, ya can't water the plants and if it's anything other then plants you can't dust it. It's just stupid & they need to stop building them or people end up doing this hahaaa
Load More Replies...We used to have a space just like that in our living room above the couch when I was a kid. When my parents were at work, my sister and I would push the two couches together, cover them with pillows and blankets, and then stupidly stack things up on this chair, so we could climb up onto the wall, and jump off onto the couches. Lol we could have seriously gotten hurt, but it was so much fun!
Not sure what I hate more...this...or the usual gigantic arrangement of dusty fake flowers that these spaces seem to attract.
Good design is thorough down to the last detail: Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the user.
Good design is environmentally-friendly: Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.
Good design is as little design as possible: Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.
So three you have it, pretty simple right? If you are tasked with designing something and want to avoid the epic fails found in this list, check these principles off first and you should succeed!
This looks like a video game area you have to do a side quest to unlock
I’ve seen this is areas of decoration. Where instead of just having bare tops where people can see, they add furniture. Must give the feeling of less industrial
That was my first thought. Old busses get turned into living spaces very frequently, and I just imagine trying to use that door with any kids, if someone inside opened it they'd get hit in the face because they always stand too close to stuff. Door would last a day, give a kid a bloody nose, and be retired.
Load More Replies...It´s a conversion and someone is living there - It´s just that they put the one way glass the wrong way in their toilet door.
If I remember right..some of these bathrooms are set up that as soon as you enter and lock the door to the stall, the walls go opaque so you can't be seen....
You use your hand or middle finger like in the middle east lol
Load More Replies...Okay is the sink in the cupboard or does the cupboard have a mirror and the sink is reflected in it?
In what way? "Oh my god this is horrible; the grease and water on the wood makes it a b*tch to clean"-cool?
Load More Replies...Put some curtains up and close the doors! Magic disappearing dishes trick!
I suppose if they put curtains in the windows of the cupboard, it's one way you could avoid having to look at dirty dishes!
Hides the sink, cuts drafts, and saves a nice piece of furniture. Practical.
To just tuck something as basic or even ugly as a sink, away in a nice cabinet.
It's for CGI. You live in a small brick house, the neighbors see the Taj Mahal.
It's photo-shopped. Note the black/white background & the uniformity of the green color. Real life colors, even solid, have a wider spectrum & more light highlights and shadows.
You are right, and it's not even a very good job.
Load More Replies...Ah. That is what they mean when they said go green. What an environment friendly house it is.
I think that is where the architect was smoking.
Load More Replies...A couple of days ago, I wouldn't have had a clue what you meant, but I just watched a video on YouTube about the s**t show that is Fallout '76, and I immediately understood. Now, of course I'll feel pretty stupid if your comment had nothing to do with that, but I'll willingly own my mistake.
Load More Replies..."I want one of those refrigerators that looks sleek and hidden." "Say no more fam"
I'm pretty sure I did that once in The Sims, but I deleted it and moved it.
By me, it's not a plumbers fail? He was working with stuff, delivered by client...
Load More Replies...I don't know why but this looks awfully depressing. Keep trying little guy, one day you might erode the sink enough...
What’s really ironic is that most sinks have large spigots that jut way out paired with basins that aren’t shaped correctly for them. You can’t wash your hair at the sink, or even get it wet, because the spigot reaches more than halfway across the sink—-usually an oval sink with the spigot across the shorter side.
I've never seen that before (I'm Canadian). Here you see nonsense more like this pic all the time. A faucet that makes you smack your knuckles on the basin even though it's huge.
Load More Replies...I'm wondering if that's what inspired it. Most people don't tour the Winchester Mystery House and walk away thinking "I'm going to build a house like that."
Load More Replies...Seller cannot understand why no one appreciates all the 'improvements' they have made to the house.
Honey, we don't need a designer. I can take care of updating the house myself.
my friends had one like this when i visited their home in mexico. during my 3am blowout from bad goat tacos, i felt super exposed. they also had a non-flushing toilet in the shower. i had to capture water during my showers and pour it quickly into the toilet to force-flush it. it was sorta fun, though. i liked the unconventional experience!
Just to hide the plumbing nightmare underneath! (or the landlord's body).
Next year they can afford the rest of the project.Have to start somewhere.
Well at least you don't have to worry about painting the fence every year.
LOL that was my first thought too - definitely looks like mold!
Load More Replies...My mother carpeted our entire house in this type of "hi-lo" shag carpeting in the early eighties. My brother's room had a blue version, which was surprisingly pretty; my room had an orange version which apparently complemented my yellow walls; parent's room a red and brown mess; living room green very similar to the pictured, and a brown and tan version in the family room. I don't know how they managed to sell the house when they got divorced.
carpet in a bathroom is the grossest anyway, then you add THAT carpet!!
Add pictures around it that are also crooked so the wall becomes a collage
I finally saw their error. I didn't read it at first
Load More Replies...Oh... my OCD! Even the top switch itself needs adjustment...>nervous breakdown ensuing<
Or if you're a guy and standing up..you can rub asses with your neighbor...
For the couple that wants to do everything together and can't be separated. Who's schmoopy?
My best friend has one of those bathrooms even the door and ceiling are covered in mirrors the only things that aren't are the floor and toilet and sink. Even the doorknob is a mirror. I've been using it for 8 years and call it "the bathroom of insecurity"
If the lights were teeny, strung-up fairy lights, there were some pumpkin sculptures lying around, and this was at MoMA, it'd be a Yayoi Kusama exhibition (I do love Kusama's work, though)!
What would really be the icing on the cake is if they were funhouse mirrors.
LMAO. That would give you all sorts of shifting body image issues.
Load More Replies...Looks like they built a pantry by stealing some space from the garage door.
They had so many ideas but couldn’t come up with a unifying theme of ugliness
Hold up. 300k? 300k. I live in a place where 300k won't get you a freakin' crackshack bachelor suite... and you ... can get a HOUSE? I don't care if you decide to pain the entire thing Minion yellow. 300k out where I live...I'll TAKE IT.
First room- migrene, come to second one- seasure, third one- mental breakdown, by the time you see more- you'll end up living under that piano..
I think Tim Burton decided on the decor and paint colors...
Is this real? I too remember it from a Saturday Night Live Sketch, I believe with Kevin Nealon and Victoria Jackson (maybe).
You can play the thumb game. Don't forget to wash your hands after lol 789-5d580c...3e2845.jpg
Someone added another wall layer with white insulation between the walls. The new receptacle on the lower left is dangerously wired to sockets directly behind it. Complete idiocy.
I would of loved to seen their faces as they switched the power back on to see if it worked or the first time they plugged something in.
I've been in some places where they have a separate hose with its own tap in the bathroom. Not sure if that would have been intended here though.
Don't you soak everything using it? And how do you dry off? A towel?
Load More Replies...Whatever the fixture is (a sink or tub?) is not even finished being plumbed yet. There's no drain hooked up to it. So I'm guessing it's not in it's final place.
Or maybe I'm wrong cause it's got caulking around it and there's a carpet on the floor. Lol
Load More Replies...I mean its inconvenient, but I do kind of like the idea of a tree in the middle of my house. Perhaps a little better displayed though
I don't think I would mind having a tree in my home, but why encase it like that??
Bugs and teeny critters using it to access the house would be my guess.
Load More Replies...Did anyone notice the sink & the fact that the tree is in the middle of the garage. That's a garage door behind it. It also seems to be a bathroom too.
I'm so confused. The tree is the least weird thing in here. Is it a bathroom? Why is the wall a garage door? Why are there stairs? Why is there a shelf you can't reach & nothing on it? Why is there an electrical box? Is that an air conditioner? WTF!
Instructions for using the air hand dryer: 1) Place hands under dryer to activate 2) rub hands together 3) wipe hands on pants.
True, but that fits any and all of them....not specific to this picture
Load More Replies...Will the air have the velocity to blow the poop off after using the crapper/ No T-paper supplied. Need a skeletal build to slither onto the throne.
Most likely trying to cover up a cell tower....but the face of the clock could be a little more obvious...
Many places are making towers look like this but in.fact are Satellite towers and no one would allow that so they disguised them into clocks or something artsy or signage.
That's actually a clever way to "camoflauge" the tower, but it's poorly done.
Okay, we had one of these in our basement growing up (not carpeted!) The reason these are up a level is that they're on the lowest level of the house and you don't want to have to dig up the foundation to lay pipe. So you lay the pipe *on* the floor and put a platform over it.
Load More Replies...The raised toilets might be if the septic system would be higher than the toilet at ground level. Prevents sewage from backing up through the toilet.
Yeah if they still run on one. This house looks a bit older so they still may.
Load More Replies...aside the terrible design and placement and colors, and all actually :D BUT how does one come to idea to put carpet around the toilet??? I mean, 3 boys (one grownup and two small ones :D )in the house and this is just NO :O
Carpet - GROSS. Secondly - found out that a raised toilet seat is usually a sign of lazy plumbing - that the fixer-upper doesn't want to do a proper replacement of the pipe-thingie below... so they just do an add on up above - HOW many times has the pipe been added on for this???
I wonder if it's to add space for the necessary u-bend without jackhammering a cement floor?
The window unit is one thing; at least it’s removable. And yeah, they had to McGuyver the direction of the water for the mismatched drain pipe. But why why why ruin beautifully designed old windows with ugly modern trash sliding windows?
There were several Youtube videos made about his exact building. People say they've never seen kids in there, that it's a front, etc.
Very rarely is a building constructed to be a daycare. I wonder what the original intent was?
It looks like the one from that Roblox game(all Roblox players should know what I'm talking about)
That depend on your angle of prespective. Right angle is so 1980.
That's the drawer where you keep all the sharp knives. Child-proof, you know.
My guess is that these were originally 'touch' drawers. No handles needed. And someone thought those god awful handles would be a good idea. I know the handles are very popular right now but I'm a strong believer in function over form
I have a drawer just like this, catty-corner to my stove—-which is too deep for the space in my kitchen. It just out two inches too far, so that drawer can’t open all the way. We keep kitchen towels in there (through trial and error, we found them to be the easiest, and least painful, thing to get in and out of it).
Why not a shower stall instead of a tub, if this is the only bathroom? Otherwise, just make it a half bath.
If you look at the window, you see the chimney inside.
Load More Replies...Uh did anyone check to see if there is someone being help against their will?
It's the entrance to the batcave, you need power for opening the floor and moving the elevator
rotating bed! Would also make a good party room for a bachelor pad, lol
Saw the same thing in a creepy home decades ago. The second floor was sealed off, at the top of the stairs. Thankfully my parents did not buy it.
Load More Replies...this is a common thing when an older property is (often illegally) subdivided into two smaller upstairs / downstairs units. ie the stairs *used* to go upstairs to the top floor, when it was one entire household. But, when dividing the house into 2 units, they didn't want to spend the money removing the stairs, so they just blocked it off with the upstairs "floor". Seen it quite a few times, actually.
And very steep and narrow stairs too. Let me guess: really large old house, with rooms blocked off, and those stairs used to lead to another floor, possibly servants’ quarters in the attic? Or maybe someone doesn’t want you to know what’s walled up in the attic? Do you hear footsteps in the middle of the night? Does food go mysteriously missing? Does your cat or dog sit and stare up those stairs a lot? Could it be a portal that should stay bricked up? A room-sized Pandora’s Box, maybe? Just spitballing ideas here...
I agree, very creative! Personally I might get tired of it after a while, but it's only paint
Load More Replies...Not my cup of tea but this is actually done pretty well if you like that underwater theme (seen much, much worse, so).
Idk, this isn't terrible, and it's something 10-year-old me would have LOVED.
Alternately, if you are exiting heaven, the door to becoming a fallen angel.
Load More Replies...My old apartment had a "phantom door" like that - there were a lot of architectural quirks b/c they took the original large apartments and divided them into smaller ones. (sidebar, I just heard that my old place has been closed by the Fire Marshall - no one can live there until the new owner makes a whole list of repairs. It's gone to hell in a handbasket since he bought the place.
I bet the ceiling was raised after construction, and that was originally a second floor. Though why leave the door?
it was a mens room "converted" to a ladies room. Seen this type of thing in a old museum where the staff area was once only men.
Not a design flaw, more like the morning at the Roman vomitorium after a real intense toga party.
I think the whole situation here is that there is no women in this room.
Load More Replies...So I guess you just go ahead and whiz on the ivy? There are probably plant nutrients in pee.
If they'd just put cabinet doors on the open space under the tub, it wouldn't be so bad -- the stairs look like they have no slip mats on them -- although a handrail would probably be a good idea!
Someone messed up the blueprints and made the hallway too shallow to accommodate the steps. My house, which I swear was measured out “by eye”, has a very small front entrance way. The front door, next to the front stairs (the bottom three steps of which curve at a sharp angle to fit) faces the hall coat closet, which has to be closed so you can open the front door. I think the house should’ve extended another six feet in front, but someone’s arm span was too short to measure it correctly. My back stairs also have a very shallow top step, so trying to lock/unlock the door with your arms full is challenging. Glad I’m only renting! I now know what to not have in any house I consider buying.
OMG I have this right now at my house. Oven opens close to halfway and hits the fridge...drawer opens 3 inches and hits the oven...it's a MESS. Measure before you purchase appliances/get cabinets, people! Or someone will buy your house with a slew of problems and suffer. :P
Same here. Dishwasher hits the fridge, drawer hits the dishwasher and another drawer hits the oven -_-
Load More Replies...Right, I mean really, how can one live like this. I mean, what kind of view can you truly have with this beam! (Dramtic eye roll)
Load More Replies...I think it's to fit the plumbing without digging up the floor. I'd be self-conscious though.
Load More Replies...You could bring Monopoly, Life and Sorry down there and call it Throne of Games!
Load More Replies...Was this originally supposed to be the tub space, but a later renovation moved or removed it? But why keep the raised floor?
I think all these elevated toilets are for boring plumbing reasons.
Load More Replies...I still don't get why the stalls are that tiny when many customers are overweight.
Defies logic, unless the bathroom is located at the bottom of the arch...
I don't think this is necessarily a design fail. I see this type of shower/bathroom layout in those tiny houses to save space.
Yeah. Seen it in a hotel as well. As long as ground is sloped properly I wouldn't call it a fail.
Load More Replies...ok y'all it's a wet bathroom, fine--but what's up with the kitchen cabinets???? And that weird shelf area! And also the way the toilet is SLIGHTLY angled just enough to get on one's nerves, AND on a small pedestal.
I've stayed at the Madonna Inn a couple of times. Some of their rooms have rock wall waterfall showers, which are interesting. Only place I've ever been where entire tour groups come in to check out the men's urinal.
Why are the shelves and the birdcage upside down? Or is this picture upside down and the thing that is supposed to be a window is actually a picture that has been hung upside down. After all..look at the top of the curtains...there's no rod.
And why such a dinky window on such a great view? That wall needs a picture window—-unless it’s a bathroom or there’s a public walkway next to it...
Load More Replies...How? The inside looks upside down, the outside, gravity appears normal...
This is a tourist attraction in Brighton in the UK. It's called The Upside Down House (or similar) and it's meant to be like this. Pretty cool actually.
The toilet needs to be above the septic tank in order for it to drain properly and not back up into the plumbing. So if the ground floor is a sunk in basement, the toilet needs to be elevated.
Load More Replies...I became irritated looking at these pics. Absolutely gruesome. Can't imagine having people pay to live in these creepy places . I'd prefer a cave.
--> https://images.app.goo.gl/k2ZqhAWKUuSJZccm7 Yup, that is a house built on an apartment building.
Anyone who plays Sims could do a better job of house design than these clowns.
Sometimes money is a problem. Fixing an inherited problem can sometimes cost more than just buying a different house.
Load More Replies...What amazes me is people build this stuff. What were they thinking? Didn't they realize something was wrong at some point?
The toilet needs to be above the septic tank in order for it to drain properly and not back up into the plumbing. So if the ground floor is a sunk in basement, the toilet needs to be elevated.
Load More Replies...I became irritated looking at these pics. Absolutely gruesome. Can't imagine having people pay to live in these creepy places . I'd prefer a cave.
--> https://images.app.goo.gl/k2ZqhAWKUuSJZccm7 Yup, that is a house built on an apartment building.
Anyone who plays Sims could do a better job of house design than these clowns.
Sometimes money is a problem. Fixing an inherited problem can sometimes cost more than just buying a different house.
Load More Replies...What amazes me is people build this stuff. What were they thinking? Didn't they realize something was wrong at some point?

