Olympics architects should retrain as dentists, says Will Self
Novelist attacks ‘lickspittle’ architects
Architects who worked on the Olympic Park should be ashamed of themselves, the writer Will Self told a literary festival.
They should retrain as dentists, where they would find a more suitable outlet for their sculptural skills, he said.
He described anyone who had worked for the Olympic Delivery Authority as a “lickspittle”.
His outspoken attack came during a London Literature Festival event at the Southbank Centre in which a panel discussed the Olympic site taking Cedric Price’s notion of a fun palace as its starting point.
Self, a novelist and self-described psychogeographer, said: “If you are an architect and involved in this obscenity then you should go home and consider retraining as a dentist… You might be able to use your creativity in a form that doesn’t do so much damage.”
He said the Olympic hype was “veneering over people’s looming sense of the inequalities in society with snake oil”.
But he said London would have the last laugh as it would endure long after the venues had gone.
Self also opened fire on Renzo Piano’s Shard which he said had been built with a 65-year-life span. He compared this unfavourably with a 300-year-old church on Borough High Street which appeared to be “embedded” in the Shard – but which would also be there long after it had been demolished.
The event, chaired by Sam Jacob, a director of Fat, also heard from Anna Minton, author of Ground Control in which she revealed that the private sector had contributed just 2% of the cost of the Olympics. The financial crash meant developer Lend Lease could not raise finance from the banks.
The other speakers were photographer Stephen Gill and academic Saskia Sassen.
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Readers' comments (21)
...and all journalists are phone-hacking, hard-drinking junkies who serve only their press-baron political masters.
Generalisations are so easy (and I suspect, so is taking quotes out of context).
whilst i bemoan the loss of the lea valley fridge mountain, psychogeographers are by nature reactionary.
I think Selfwill got that the wrong way round. The world would be a better place if more dentists re-trained as architects. It's so easy for self-promoting hacks like Self to get upset with the system and take it out on architects. We're such an easy target!
Sad thing for all of us Londoners is that he's right.
For some of us it is too late. Unfortunately we are too specialised to change industries. And the 'skills' we think we have, no one wants ... Sweeping the desolate streets we have 'decorated' or destroyed is our only 'avenue' ....
Perhaps Mr Self should retrain as an architect?
I've read his books. Maybe he should consider other means of employment too.
Maybe Mr Self should reconsider re-training as a journalist or even as a novelist, as he seems to be struggling for material in his current occupation as a "lickspittle" rabble-rouser.
I wonder if Mr Self has thought of boxing as a career. It could do the world of good to his physique and give an opportunity to pick off his protagonists one by one rather than the blanket coverage despite which he misses so many.
Aside from all the witty reactionary comments (which are very good by the way) - Self's comments don't make logical sense. How can the olympic park be "veneering over people’s looming sense of the inequalities in society" with a stadium that looks like that?
And secondly - lay journalists always get this wrong - the 65 years lifespan of the shard does not mean the whole building will need to be replaced, just repaired or refurbished, and 65 is actually a good age for that.