‘Urban hell’ can come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes, it’s buildings that are simply unpleasant to look at, whether old or new. It can also be something that’s surprisingly inconvenient or serves no purpose at all. Oftentimes, it’s also something that requires destroying bits and pieces of nature, which is, in most cases, simply not worth it.

While ‘Urban hell’ means different things to different people, it usually evokes the same sentiment—a feeling that might make you want to turn your gaze away.

Talking about loss of nature due to architectural wonders–or atrocities—architectural psychologist Dak Kopec noted that nature should play a significant role in regards to buildings and construction. “Land should not be viewed only in terms of the developer's profit but in the mental and physical health and well-being of the people,” he said.

According to the expert, destroying nature because of construction might lead to loss of empathy. “When people stop seeing themselves in the cycle of life, they can start to distance themself from caring. This might be caring for a tree or flowers, animals, and our fellow human beings. We are part of nature, and we need this connection to help keep us balanced.”

Since whether or not something is an eye sore or eye candy is a highly subjective matter, people’s opinions tend to clash. And they often do when it comes to all sorts of iconic—well-known, for better or worse—buildings in cities all over the world.

Take the Montparnasse Tower in Paris, France, for instance. While it is hated by many Parisians, in a piece for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, Daniel Libeskind, a well-known architect, artist, professor, and set designer, stood in defense of said tower, not particularly because of its beauty, but because of the idea it represents.

“Parisians panicked when they saw it, and when they abandoned the tower they also abandoned the idea of a high-density sustainable city. Because they exiled all future high rises to some far neighborhood like La Défense, they were segregating growth,” Libeskind commented to T.

Talking about the Montparnasse Tower, Libeskind continued to point out that, due to its shrinking capacity, people have no choice but to build good, high-rise buildings that are affordable. “Maybe Tour Montparnasse is not a work of genius, but it signified a notion of what the city of the future will have to be,” he noted.

As of January 2023, the French capital had just over 2.1 million residents. However, over the same year, it welcomed nearly 29 million visitors, which could make it feel pretty packed.

If you’re interested in packed cities, Prof. Alasdair Rae of the University of Sheffield has carried out interesting research, delving deeper into the density of populations in countries all over Europe. He located the densest kilometer in each one of them and found that the most densely populated city in Europe is not Paris. It’s… you guessed it, Barcelona.

According to Rae’s study, the most densely populated kilometer in one of Spain’s main hubs is home to nearly 54,000 people. Second on the list, the French capital houses a little over 52,200 in its most densely populated one square kilometer.

Following Barcelona and Paris were Szczecin in Poland (nearly 33,000 people per sq. km), Brussels in Belgium (29,100 people), Athens in Greece (just over 28,800 people), and Stockholm in Sweden (with roughly 26,100 people).

When it comes to the city with the highest population density globally, Mogadishu in Somalia tops the list, according to 2023 data. There, it’s not only one particular kilometer that’s densely populated but the entire city houses roughly 33,200 residents per square kilometer.

According to Prof. Kopec, overcrowding is a big problem. “People need space, and when areas are too dense, people can start to feel overcrowded and over-stimulated, which often translates to not caring for fellow people or the environment itself.”

It’s safe to assume that for some people, incredibly densely populated places are the ultimate definition of ‘urban hell’; there are enough pictures on this list to demonstrate why. But if you don’t want to look at such hell any longer, continue with something more attractive in our architecture category or browse these expectations vs. reality: architecture edition pictures for a good giggle.