Sore Sites

A selection of the author's iconoclastic weekly columns in Building Design is now made available, decorated with the author's own extremely bad drawings, to those without access to the benefits of the architectural trade press. Alighting on subjects broadly architectural, Self talks you through a trip on an open-top bus in London, a visit to Barratt Homes and marvels over the ugliness of Cologne. His targets and objects of affection are as diverse as Pictish broughs; the SIPSocracy and autogeddon; the dignity, or otherwise, of labor; and Norman Foster's plane. Will Self takes this opportunity to scratch at the sore places and follies of modern life - the Millennium Dome, the Diana cult, Berlin, the new Getty Center, the Cotswolds; to promote his heroes - J G Ballard, Thomas De Quincey, Julian Jaynes; and to share his observations on topics ranging from Eric Gill's dress sense (and exotic sexual practices) to his own experiences as a hod carrier.