Bodil Blain: Do you drink coffee?
Thomas Heatherwick: No, but I love the social rituals of sharing.
BB: Collaboration is a very strong element in your work. How do you choose the people you work with?
TH: The most important thing to me is the way someone brings out the best in others. I don’t produce sketches and hand them out to others to develop. Instead, we all talk and think and work together to grow the best solutions to the problems we are given and perceive around us. To me, it’s romantic; to someone looking from the outside, they might see it as a slow and painful process. But when you work well with someone else, it is amazing to find ideas and solutions exponentially growing in front of you.
BB: What projects are in the pipeline?
TH: We have lots going on in Singapore. As well as a new residential building currently under construction, we’re also designing a new terminal at Changi Airport with KPF. It’s a really exciting opportunity to try and break away from the soullessness and sterility that we’ve come to expect from typical airport environments.
Eden, Heatherwick Studio’s residential project in Singapore.
BB: Do you miss the physical processes of making things?
TH: I started making things from an early age and, as a result, I feel it is something deep within me. You can’t take it away. It’s like skiing – if you learn to ski but never ski again, you will still know how to ski. You’ve got it in your bones! For the first 30 years of my life, I was making all the time. It was the only way for any of my ideas to happen. Now I’m lucky to have incredible collaborators who help me make and develop ideas.
BB: What would you like to be remembered for?
TH: What I’m trying to do with the studio is to help make places that bring out the best human connections between people. With the phenomenal success of globalised building procurement, so many cities are increasingly becoming more and more sterile and similar to each other. This is a serious issue – and it’s exciting when you feel you can touch people and make a real difference.
As originally featured in the May 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*242)
INFORMATION
-
Nela is London's new stage for open-fire gastronomyA beloved Amsterdam import brings live-fire elegance to The Whiteley’s grand revival
-
How we host: with Our Place founder, Shiza ShahidWelcome, come on in, and take a seat at Wallpaper*s new series 'How we host' where we dissect the art of entertaining. Here, we speak to Our Place founder Shiza Shahid on what makes the perfect dinner party, from sourcing food in to perfecting the guest list, and yes, Michelle Obama is invited
-
Matteo Thun carves a masterful thermal retreat into the Canadian RockiesBasin Glacial Waters, a project two decades in the making, finally surfaces at Lake Louise, blurring the boundaries between architecture and terrain
-
Thomas Heatherwick's 2025 Seoul architecture biennale calls for ‘radically more human’ buildingsThe 2025 Seoul architecture biennale launches in the South Korean capital, curated by Thomas Heatherwick, who argues for creating buildings in tune with emotion, 'the thing that drives us'
-
Tour Xi'an's remarkable new 'human-centred' shopping district with designer Thomas HeatherwickXi'an district by Heatherwick Studio, a 115,000 sq m retail development in the Chinese city, opens this winter. Thomas Heatherwick talks us through its making and ambition
-
Architectural gardens around the world to soothe the soulFrom small domestic gardens, to nature reserves, urban interventions and local parks, here are some of the finest green projects that place nature at their heart
-
Heatherwick Studio’s Azabudai Hills district launches as Tokyo’s newest city-in-a-cityTokyo welcomes the Azabudai Hills district, designed by Heatherwick Studio and constructed as a city-in-a-city after over three decades of planning
-
Thomas Heatherwick's 'Humanise' is a book campaigning for joy in architectureThomas Heatherwick's 'Humanise' is a new book - and the start of a campaign - by the designer, arguing against 'boring' buildings
-
Azabudai Hills to bring a slice of wildness to Tokyo’s megacityHeatherwick Studio’s design for Azabudai Hills aims to bring some soulfulness and a slice of wildness to the megacity
-
Heatherwick Studio unveils undulating mixed-use Tokyo scheme design -
Out of office: coffee and creative small talk with Tatiana BilbaoBodil Blain, Wallpaper* columnist and founder of Cru Kafé, shares coffee and creative small talk with leading figures from the worlds of art, architecture, design, and fashion. This week, it’s Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao, who is currently designing a brutalist, ethical aquarium in Mazatlán and has an exhibition at Copenhagen's Louisiana Museum of Modern Art opening in October 2019
