Prince Charles launches another attack on architects calling the Ivor Crewe lecture theatre at the University of Essex a dustbin

The Prince of Wales has returned again to architectural commentary, this time by likening a £6m building by architect Patel Taylor to a ‘dustbin’.

The steel-clad Ivor Crewe lecture theatre was built as an extension to the University of Essex in 2006. It is one of the largest lecture theatres in the UK.

The Prince was meeting soldiers there about to ship about to Afghanistan, and made the comments in an address to them and their families.

He said: "I understand about 1,700 of you are crammed into what looks like a dustbin from the outside."

Patel Taylor is a small London-based practice, and has designed award-winning schemes at Putney Wharf, Royal Victoria Dock and Thames Barrier Park.

A spokeperson for Essex University said: "It is designed to be a lecture theatre, and it has a functional use. It's for lectures therefore it doesn't need windows and so on. I'm not sure I like the term dustbin."

The comments came just weeks after the Prince made the headlines for labelling the new towers of the City of London as “a new rash of carbuncles.”

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