Does South Africa have a characteristic style of architecture? Is it Cape Dutch, mud hut, concrete slab or corrugated iron shanty? Is it retro-futuristic such as the Hillbrow Tower or modern innovation like the Constitutional Court?

Tuscan villas are all the rage along the highveld landscape, jarring with the grassy hills and flat-topped mine dumps. This "Boere Toskaans" is one of the latest borrowed styles from Europe that started when the Dutch settlers landed in the Cape. We'll forgive them for the elegant, thatched and gabled Cape Dutch house, but Montecasino has pushed this imitation of overseas styles a little too far.

The Balinese style of the One & Only Hotel and the state-of-the art environmentally conscious building that is the Maropeng visitor's centre are not only countries, but worlds apart. Many of South Africa's top architects are both inspired by the kind of structures that are being built and still appalled by some of the monstrosities coming up all over the country. We asked some of South Africa's top architects and an artist to nominate their best and worst buildings.

STEPHEN HOBBS is an artist whose mission is to convey the ethos and pulsating life force of the downtown areas of Johannesburg, in all its confusion and vigorous energy.

"Ponte City still remains for me a fantastic reminder of how monumental modernist failure can be. Despite its brutal ugliness it remains a source of dystopian inspiration. I love the curved concrete roof of the visitors' centre at the Civic Centre in Braamfontein and, having owned an apartment in Gleneagles, Killarney, I have a profound appreciation for Deco of the mid-1930s. A number of other buildings come to mind, including the Barbican in Rissik Street, the Rissik Street Post Office, and University Corner with its defunct revolving restaurant has always attracted me with its combination of box and high-rise forms.

To me, besides the visitors' centre, one of the most negative structures is the Civic Centre. Its solid concrete omnipresence has mesmerised me for years to the extent that, like Ponte City, it is fascinating both inside and out.''

HUGH FRASER is experiencing a transitory nirvana away from clients and contractors. He is employed by the PG Group to explore the appropriate application of glass in an inspired manner.

"Johannesburg is not the prettiest city in the country but it is the most dynamic - a Wild West town with architecture to match. The buildings that I appreciate are those that reflect the can-do attitude of the city. I love the cityscape from buildings such as Ansteys, which is a national monument - the view is spectacular. Other modern developments I love include the Constitutional Court, Arts on Main and the new bar, Randlords, atop the Sable Building in Braamfontein.

The buildings I despise are the viral rash of Tuscan/ Bali/Provencal developments that are nothing but Potemkin villages. This, allied with the vulgar multi-storey hoardings which deface the city, contribute to a self- disrespect that undermines what is great about our city."

KATE OTTEN's work is diverse in scale and type. It includes a variety of residential projects, a boutique hotel, conference facility, restaurants, commercial and retail projects as well as more unusual building types.

"My best buildings are the ones that are thoughtfully designed and conceived; buildings that consider the context, the user and environment. The Constitutional Court, the Bara Link taxi rank, the Water Tower in Mid-rand are a few.

My worst buildings are the hundreds of pseudo-

Tuscan/Georgian/Balinese complexes. I'm appalled that they're still being built. Montecasino is another fake that also ranks in the worst buildings category."

NICHOLAS WHITCUTT'S projects include a new People's Environmental Centre for the GreenHouse Project (ongoing) in Joubert Park in association with Jacobs and Associates.

"One of my favourite buildings is the FNB Stadium. It takes a simple symbolic idea, the calabash, that if poorly realised could be really cheesy, and transforms it into a building that becomes much more. It resonates with its landscape and context and works as an object at a distance, as you approach it, enter it and move through it. It feels relaxed and has a real sense of place.

My worst building is the RDP house (in all of its variants). These buildings represent lost opportunities, where housing policy has placed the emphasis firmly on delivery of product rather than support of process. People have been providing their own housing for centuries; housing that grows out of settlements and evolves incremently using local labour and materials.

The RDP house denies this and is inadequate - there's no insulation, no internal sanitation - because it is trapped in a paradigm in which a house has to be provided within a subsidy allowance by tenderpreneurs. Subsidies should be redirected to support people's own processes through regional and local bulk-buy materials and advice centres, staffed by architectural and engineering graduates doing community service."

PERRY HARRISON-HYDE, who is based in Cape Town, has converted a church into a residence.

"My favourite buildings are earth-covered, for example the Fynbos house at Betty's Bay, the Curio shop at the Cape Point reserve, and the Maropeng Museum at The Cradle of Humankind. The primary requirement for buildings is that they are practical. Because they are so costly, the aesthetic aspect of the architecture is often considered an optional extra.

Buildings in the countryside and in peri-urban areas are seldom in harmony with their surrounding landscape. Sometimes the stark contrast of man-made against nature can be pleasing but most of the time it is more the reflection of mankind's insensitivity to the planet. The buildings I have mentioned alleviate this imposition by submerging the buildings below the landscape.

My worst building is The One & Only Hotel at the Cape Town waterfront. Immediately, it seems pleasant and tranquil, even tropical with lots of palm trees and blue water. But zoom out and it quickly and clearly becomes a foreign object within its context of one of the world's first publicly friendly and accessible working harbours.

When you look at the hotel against Table Mountain it's obvious that it is an over-scaled and arrogant mass of glitz in comparison to the small-scale industrial harbour which can no longer be seen behind the length and height of the hotel's facade.

It's unfortunate that the City of Cape Town and the waterfront management failed to understand the probable long-term degenerate "Disneyland"-type effect it will have on the surrounding urban fabric. Its vulgarity insults the heritage of Cape Town, and mocks those that fish, repair ships and offload cargo in the harbour.''

LAURA ROBINSON specialises in the sensitive management of cultural heritage.

"I have chosen a special heritage building that I love, which is also one of the restoration projects that I am working on.

The Granary in Buitenkant Street, Cape Town, is one of the most significant buildings of the colonial period in South Africa. The front façade of the building has a beautiful pediment flanked by two statues - Neptune and Brittania.

The interiors retain exquisite yellowwood floors, timber beams and ceilings. There is also an open courtyard inside the building, which houses one of the earliest grape vines in the country and, when restored, will offer a tranquil escape from the bustle of the city."