A controversial speech given by Ken Shuttleworth to an audience of engineers has been criticised by FCBS boss Keith Bradley.

Make Architects founder Ken Shuttleworth has publicly accused architects of taking credit for engineers’ work, describing his fellow professionals as ‘arrogant, egotistical, prima donnas, pain in the arses, and absolute bastards’.

In a speech at the recent CIBSE Building Performance Awards in front of an audience of more than 700, Shuttleworth said of architects that they had been ‘king of the castle for far too long’ adding: ‘Architects take all the credit for all [engineers’] hard work…‘You [engineers] need to tell the architects, when they try to call the shots, to sod off.

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But Keith Bradley of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBS), who was in the audience, said: ‘It’s a pity that Ken used the opportunity to caricature the architect as arrogant (apart from himself), rather than using the opportunity to encourage real collaboration and respect between engineers and architects.

‘The UK has a fantastic reputation for integrated architecture and engineering projects. This could have been celebrated rather than a tabloid like rant that divides rather than unites those of us who are trying to work together to promote a common attitude to the built environment.’

‘In Ken’s attempt to light-heartedly provoke he has just reinforce certain prejudices , and in doing so turned the clock back a few annoying minutes on years of collaborative progress..'