Bland Castles inspire us to Build Joyful

Bland Castles was a joyful, creative protest in summer 2025 using sand sculptures to call time on lifeless, lookalike buildings.

By creating uninspired buildings as super-sized sand castles, and inviting people to make their own joyful versions, we were asking ‘why?’

We don’t build bland castles, so why all the bland buildings?

As well as getting coverage in the likes of The I Paper, the BBC, Dezeen and outlets in Spain, Hungary and Turkey, we had some brilliant conversations with people about how bland buildings are taking over in their towns and cities, and how they don’t feel they have any say in it.