The National Palace of Culture in Bulgaria's capital Sofia has been placed among the world's most "impractical" buildings, according to a Financial Times article.

 

A list of nine buildings, one that includes a short description of each, is complemented by a poll asking readers which of them is "most inhuman". (As of October 17, 13:30 EEST, it is last in voters' preferences having garnered just 2.6%).

 

FT puts the Communist-era building in its "shortlist" along with the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the European Parliament in Strasbourg, the Mogamma in Cairo, and the J Edgar Hoover building in Washington, DC. 

 

"Examples abound in most urban environments" of "desire lines" which "clearly show where the designer of a public space has failed to account for how people would wish to use it."

 

The National Palace of Culture has thus fallen into a group of buildings illustrating a top-down approach of "subordinating people to a wider vision" described at the beginning of the text. 

 

"The nuclear reactor-like building may not appeal to everybody’s taste, but it is the only place where you can see all the layers of modern-day Bulgaria in a couple of hours — and have fun at the same time," the palace's description reads. 

 

Exploring the 123 000 sq m "mammoth" whose construction was completed in the 1980s, under the Communist regime of late leader Todor Zhivkov, "can be a somewhat challenging task".

 

Finding one's way there, as the article points out, can "take some serious brainpower", and outside "perennial repair works" can be seen.