McMansions, now becoming popular in some gated communities here in Egypt, are architectural monstrosities — and it’s not a matter of taste: They fail to live-up to basic architectural concepts. The McMansion Hell blog explains basic architectural concepts and “why not all suburban / exurban / residential houses are McMansions, as well as what makes a McMansion especially hideous.” A starting point, according to the blog, is that a McMansion has no concept of “mass” and that it uses too many “voids” as “Some McMansions are so guilty of this they resemble Swiss cheese in appearance.” They also have notoriously poor “balance,” they are neither symmetrically nor asymmetrically balanced, and also have horrible proportions. McMansion Hell also says commercialised McMansions lack architectural rhythm and fail to abide by the Gestalt Principles. McMansions typically have “contrasting materials [that] distract the eye from an otherwise somewhat asymmetrically balanced (if massive) house. The inconsistency of the window shapes as well as the shutters make this house incredibly tacky.” The blogpost provides visual examples of all the architectural critiques it presents.