Parkland parasite.

It is not unusual for modest domestic properties to be vandalised by low-grade conservatories. Mock Victorian are perhaps the worst, seen as a bad rash across Britain, somehow achieving the impossible: to cheapen the look of the country's most banal suburban homes. Time and again people seek sun-drenched lifestyles by doing the architectural equivalent of slapping lipstick on a pig. In this case, however, the creature in question didn't even need make-up. As the architect Mark Dytham discovered while working in San Francisco recently, the bolt-on disease is spreading. The de Young Museum (AR October 2005), is perhaps one of the finest buildings of recent years, and yet even this structure is not immune to curated vandalism. Set against San Francisco's Golden Gate landscape, de Young's curious double-headed form has given it a unique split personality, grazing on Eucalyptus and grass at one end and inquisitively twisting its long neck at the other to survey the city beyond. It would seem, however, that those in the know are more clear about which end is which, demonstrated by the decision to pin this uncomfortable cellophane nappy around the backside of the building; placed beneath what some apparently consider to be its stumpy and inadequate tail. Who decided to inflict plastic surgery on such an infant? In a region that thrives on the application of synthetic materials this sort of attitude should come as little surprise. What is a surprise however is that the de Young is supposed to represent the best of American, Oceanic and African art. Is this addition a joke? Are they genuinely trying to compete with the local garden centre, or nearby wedding reception venues? Or is it simply a matter of interpretation, with us missing the subtleties of a new form of contemporary installation art? Let's hope it's not as permanent as it looks, despite the fact that it has been neatly tailored to encroach into one of Herzog and de Meuron's sharply tapering courtyards. Whatever next? Surely they wouldn't hang black-out blinds in James Turrell's skyspace, Three Gems, or repair Andy Goldsworthy's broken paving, Faultline? Please, de Young, save us and your pride by taking down this ridiculous tent.

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Photographs by Mark Dytham