Wednesday 25 February 2015
Thomas Heatherwick
Ingenuity, Transformation and Surprise
‘The Leonardo da Vinci of our times’: this is how Sir Terence Conran has described Thomas Heatherwick. By bringing design, architecture and engineering, along with a dash of sculpture and urban planning, all under the roof of a single practice, Heatherwick has won a global reputation for transformation, experimentation and surprise.
Founder of Heatherwick Studio, whose most notable projects include the Olympic Cauldron for the 2012 Olympic Games, the New Bus for London, and the award-winning UK Pavilion for the Shanghai World Expo 2010, Thomas is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a Senior Research Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and in 2013 he was elected a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts, London. The work of Heatherwick Studio has been the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Heatherwick’s next ambitious plan for London is the Garden Bridge, a floating forest that will span the Thames between the National Theatre and Temple tube station. A pedestrian walkway which Heatherwick has dubbed ‘guerilla gardening’, it will feature a series of curving pathways with sections including marshland, ornamental gardens, wild glades, fruit trees and evergreens. It promises to be a botanical boon for commuters as well as a haven of peace for those seeking respite from the bustle of the city.
At the root of everything I do is a fascination with ideas – what ideas are for, what jobs they do.
Founder of Heatherwick Studio, whose most notable projects include the Olympic Cauldron for the 2012 Olympic Games, the New Bus for London, and the award-winning UK Pavilion for the Shanghai World Expo 2010, Thomas is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a Senior Research Fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and in 2013 he was elected a Royal Academician by the Royal Academy of Arts, London. The work of Heatherwick Studio has been the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Heatherwick’s next ambitious plan for London is the Garden Bridge, a floating forest that will span the Thames between the National Theatre and Temple tube station. A pedestrian walkway which Heatherwick has dubbed ‘guerilla gardening’, it will feature a series of curving pathways with sections including marshland, ornamental gardens, wild glades, fruit trees and evergreens. It promises to be a botanical boon for commuters as well as a haven of peace for those seeking respite from the bustle of the city.
