THE Prince of Wales has found a fresh target for his withering hatred of modern architecture. He branded a university building where he was addressing a gathering of paratroopers today a “dustbin”.

The oval-shaped Ivor Crewe building at Essex university in Colchester was described by an architectural critic recently as a building which “surprises and shines with its unusual design and the material mix of stainless steel and glass.”

But to laughter and clapping from the soldiers, who will be sent to Afghanistan next month, Charles gave a different assessment. “I understand about 1,700 are crammed into what looks like a dustbin from the outside,” he said.

The heir to the throne has recently renewed his assault on modern architecture that he began in 1984 ago when he called a proposed extension to the National Gallery in London “a monstrous carbuncle”.

Last month, he condemned the growing number of skyscrapers being erected in central London. The prince called them “not just one carbuncle on the face of a much-loved friend, but a positive rash of them that will disfigure precious views and disinherit future generations of Londoners”.

Charles said skyscrapers in the capital should be confined to Canary Wharf and the Docklands in the east of the capital, “rather than overshadowing Wren’s and Hawksmoor’s churches”.

He has also described the British Library at St Pancras in central London as looking like the assembly hall of a secret police academy, and Birmingham’s central library as looking like “a place where books are incinerated, not kept”.

After his talk in the university building, named after Sir Ivor Crewe, a former vice-chancellor, the prince, colonel-in-chief of the Parachute Regiment, spoke to the 500 members of the second battalion and their families who were present.

A spokeswoman for Essex university said: “It is designed to be a lecture theatre. 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.”

In response to the Prince's comments Sir Ivor Crewe, who stepped down as university vice-chancellor in September last year, said: “It seems a little bit self-serving to praise a building that has been named after me.

“I think it’s a splendid building and I am very proud to be associated with it.

“Architecture is something that so many people have strong opinions about. I think it’s very healthy for people to express robust views on the quality of buildings and their physical environment.

“I think the building is an adornment to the university campus.”

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