Image: Herald Sun

Federation Square in Melbourne has been included among a list of the world’s ugliest building.

Compiled by The Telegraph in the UK, it listed Federation Square as eighth in a list of "21 of the ugliest buildings ever designed and built".

Coming first on the list was Torre Velasca in Milan, Italy. Designed by the BBPR architectural partnership and built in the 1950s. This was followed by China's Fang Yuan office block building and the National Library in Pristina, Kosovo.

In Melbourne, the Herald Sun reported that the architect and community leaders such as the former premier and the city’s mayor staunchly defended the square, which attracts about 9 million visitors a year.

Federation Square designer, Donald Bates from LAB Architecture Studio, brushed it off as a stunt and pointed out that the precinct had featured in every major architecture book in the past 10 years.