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Ugly - probably but they are rather clever in my opinion. They are modular and can be deployed by one bod nearly anywhere.

I have no idea what windbreaks and faux wotsits are let alone "decorative" means. I'm a bodger/Engineer.

If you need to stop a vast amount of stuff moving from A to B then gabions are a very decent solution with the added bonus that you don't need to be an Engineer. Civilians will generally get it right first time just by looking at the problem.

This is not the case where I am in Canada, but your comment caused me to check Google Images.

https://www.google.com/search?q=gabion+wall

What is going on here? This is a totally bizarre architectural element.

Fair enough, many are ugly, but I generally quite like the way they look. Lots of scope for different shapes and colours and textures. They can be blended in with the local geology via the choice of rocks. You can put benches or pathways on them, or soil on them and grow plants, or even grow mosses and lichens.

I've started to see this everywhere also