1. innovator
thomas heatherwick
TWO IMAGES, HEATHERWICK STUDIO. OPPOSITE, MARKN OGUE
Cultivation Cathedral
thomas heatherwick
spreads U.k.’s seeds at
the shanghai expo.
Marina cashdanwords
above and right:
renderings of the U.k.
pavilion at the 2010
shanghai expo.
opposite : heatherwick.
30 Modern Painters MAY 2010 artinfo.coM
2. Designer-sculptor
Thomas Heatherwick’s studio is a five-minute
who invited the young man to
live and work at his home. There
Heatherwick constructed a
walk from London’s King’s Cross tube station, in laminated-birch gazebo, which
an industrial space hidden behind the remarkable still stands in Conran’s garden.
Edwardian façade of a onetime government The two developed a close
building (saved from its former state of decrepi- working relationship. (In 2004
tude, Heatherwick tells me, by “a façade- Conran, a Design Museum
retention project”). Visitors enter through a 10- trustee, offered Heatherwick his
foot-tall wrought-iron gate and follow a dark own show.) This influential
cobblestone drive to an oversized glass door. connection and an installation he
Just above the studio is a Travel Lodge, part of a created for Harvey Nichols for
chain of budget hotels. “I actually am embar- the 1997 London Fashion
rassed,” quips Heatherwick. “I had a vanity thing Week—a dramatically lit plywood
where I was thinking, ‘Would it be bad to be sculpture, titled Autumn
under a Travel Lodge?’ And actually it’s great Intrusion, that climbed up the
being here.” entire front of the department
Heatherwick and his team of 25 designers, store, weaving in and out of its
architects, artists, and fabricators moved into the windows—solidified his reputa-
7,700-square-foot open-plan studio-workshop tion quite quickly. London had
almost two years ago. It’s equipped with a full fallen for Heatherwick’s very
kitchen—clean and minimal in design—with a special designs.
long, communal table, a conference room, a “I’m interested in the format
meeting room, and a large workspace in the of where specialness is,” he
back. In the common area, the wall is lined with says. “One part of that is trying
shelves and drawers marked with labels like Clay, to spot that specialness in
Fibres, and Rubbers, Plastics. projects that come to you, and
The air hums with productivity. Tacked-up also the other way around—
sketches and a few maquettes are sprinkled around to keep you thinking, reflecting,” says trying to make projects happen if you’ve got an
throughout the rooms. “You need [older work] Heatherwick, whose explosive head of curls and idea for one.” A project he made happen was a
boyish looks make it hard to believe he’s 40 carryall constructed entirely of zippers. In 2004
years old. On this particular afternoon, the focal he presented the concept to Longchamp, a
point in the front space is the 10-foot-high French family-run leather and luxury-goods
Lamp-Post Chandelier sculpture, which was company. “Our old studio was near a zip factory,
constructed for the “Super Contemporary” so I’d been experimenting with them. I ap-
exhibition at the Design Museum in London last proached [the Longchamps] with an idea for a
year and has just returned. The sculpture typifies bag. And they were like, Who are you?” he
Heatherwick’s approach: something special recalls, laughing. “But almost immediately there
made from ordinary materials. was a kind of genuine chemistry, because they’d
Heatherwick likes the word special, perhaps never met a designer before.” After the Zip bag’s
partly (and subconsciously) because this successful launch, Longchamp invited Heather-
adjective has been applied to him since he was wick Studio in 2006 to design its first contempo-
quite young. Born and raised in North London, rary flagship store, in New York’s SoHo.
Heatherwick comes from a creative family. His Special has also been used to describe
mother was a bead collector with a shop on Heatherwick’s design for the U.K. pavilion at the
Portobello Road, and his father, a musician, Shanghai Expo, opening this month. In winning
introduced him to architecture and design early the commission, his studio beat out a number of
on. Because of his bohemian upbringing, the British firms, including Zaha Hadid Architects.
designer was initially wary of working in the The finalized design, he says, emphasizes texture
luxury market but became attuned to it after over shape. This is another theme in Heather-
launching Thomas Heatherwick Studio (which wick’s work: His 184-foot starburst B of the Bang
has since dropped the Thomas from its name) in sculpture, built to mark the Manchester Com-
1994. “Luxury is only relative to what you believe monwealth Games in 2002, was so textural it was
luxury to be,” he says, remarking that taking a almost dangerous, having to be dismantled last
solitary journey on the Heathrow Express to the year because its metal spikes were falling off.
airport is a greater indulgence for him than “I’m interested in texture,” he says. “In large
getting picked up in a limo: “I’m not comfortable structures, buildings always tend to be shapes:
having a driver in front and not talking to him. There’s the sky, and there’s a building; there’s
Ignoring him makes me feel like I’m being rude.” that shape and that shape. But could we make a
Heatherwick studied 3-D design at Manches- building and sky somehow blend with each
ter Polytechnic, going on to get his MA in other? Could you have a soft building?”
product design at the Royal College of Art, in A maquette of the Shanghai Expo pavilion sits
London. While at rca he happened to meet on a table in the studio. It looks like a combina-
Terence Conran, the U.K.’s foremost designer, tion sea urchin and 1970s fiber-optic lamp, with
artinfo.coM MAY 2010 Modern Painters 31
3. innovator
hundreds of plastic fibers jutting out from a which emanate 60,000 transparent acrylic
central structure. Adhering to the event’s filaments, each encasing a seed donated by the
theme—Better City, Better Life—Heatherwick bank and lightweight enough to be continually
played with the U.K. passion for horticulture. swaying with the breeze, causing, as he puts it,
“British cities are the greenest in the world— the building to “tingle.” The sun will illuminate
‘greenest,’ as in the quantity of greenery built the rods during the day, and at night lamps will
into the infrastructure of the cities. The world’s light them, infusing the interior of the pavilion
first public park of modern times was in a British with a shimmering glow. The structure will take
city. The Victorians believed that it would help up only about a quarter of the land allotted to
people’s health, so they cleared slums and built the U.K., with the remainder carpeted in gray
parks. And we set up the Royal Botanic Gardens Astroturf, no doubt enhancing the whole’s
of Kew, the foremost botanic gardens of the otherworldliness. “Because normally people
world.” He drew inspiration from Kew’s Millen- have built the pavilion as big as their site, we’ve
nium Seed Bank partnership, the largest ex situ deliberately not done that. Instead, we’re making
project anywhere dedicated to preserving the a big public space. You’ve got 239 pavilions
seeds of plants threatened with extinction. showing off, so how do you show off when
Working with more than 50 countries, the everyone is showing off? It seemed that the
partnership has collected seeds from 10 percent best way was to try and find some calm idea,”
of the earth’s wild species and hopes to increase Heatherwick says, brushing his hand over the
that to 25 percent by 2020. Heatherwick little sea-urchin maquette. “I’ve always liked
designed a £25 million “seed cathedral” from doing projects that you don’t expect.” MP
ALL IMAGES, HEATHERWICK STUDIO
clockwise from top:
heatherwick-designed
windows at harvey
nichols, London, 1997.
interior rendering, U.k.
pavilion, 2010 shang-
hai expo. pavilion
detail, encased seeds.
32 Modern Painters MAY 2010 artinfo.coM
![Designer-sculptor
Thomas Heatherwick’s studio is a five-minute
who invited the young man to
live and work at his home. There
Heatherwick constructed a
walk from London’s King’s Cross tube station, in laminated-birch gazebo, which
an industrial space hidden behind the remarkable still stands in Conran’s garden.
Edwardian façade of a onetime government The two developed a close
building (saved from its former state of decrepi- working relationship. (In 2004
tude, Heatherwick tells me, by “a façade- Conran, a Design Museum
retention project”). Visitors enter through a 10- trustee, offered Heatherwick his
foot-tall wrought-iron gate and follow a dark own show.) This influential
cobblestone drive to an oversized glass door. connection and an installation he
Just above the studio is a Travel Lodge, part of a created for Harvey Nichols for
chain of budget hotels. “I actually am embar- the 1997 London Fashion
rassed,” quips Heatherwick. “I had a vanity thing Week—a dramatically lit plywood
where I was thinking, ‘Would it be bad to be sculpture, titled Autumn
under a Travel Lodge?’ And actually it’s great Intrusion, that climbed up the
being here.” entire front of the department
Heatherwick and his team of 25 designers, store, weaving in and out of its
architects, artists, and fabricators moved into the windows—solidified his reputa-
7,700-square-foot open-plan studio-workshop tion quite quickly. London had
almost two years ago. It’s equipped with a full fallen for Heatherwick’s very
kitchen—clean and minimal in design—with a special designs.
long, communal table, a conference room, a “I’m interested in the format
meeting room, and a large workspace in the of where specialness is,” he
back. In the common area, the wall is lined with says. “One part of that is trying
shelves and drawers marked with labels like Clay, to spot that specialness in
Fibres, and Rubbers, Plastics. projects that come to you, and
The air hums with productivity. Tacked-up also the other way around—
sketches and a few maquettes are sprinkled around to keep you thinking, reflecting,” says trying to make projects happen if you’ve got an
throughout the rooms. “You need [older work] Heatherwick, whose explosive head of curls and idea for one.” A project he made happen was a
boyish looks make it hard to believe he’s 40 carryall constructed entirely of zippers. In 2004
years old. On this particular afternoon, the focal he presented the concept to Longchamp, a
point in the front space is the 10-foot-high French family-run leather and luxury-goods
Lamp-Post Chandelier sculpture, which was company. “Our old studio was near a zip factory,
constructed for the “Super Contemporary” so I’d been experimenting with them. I ap-
exhibition at the Design Museum in London last proached [the Longchamps] with an idea for a
year and has just returned. The sculpture typifies bag. And they were like, Who are you?” he
Heatherwick’s approach: something special recalls, laughing. “But almost immediately there
made from ordinary materials. was a kind of genuine chemistry, because they’d
Heatherwick likes the word special, perhaps never met a designer before.” After the Zip bag’s
partly (and subconsciously) because this successful launch, Longchamp invited Heather-
adjective has been applied to him since he was wick Studio in 2006 to design its first contempo-
quite young. Born and raised in North London, rary flagship store, in New York’s SoHo.
Heatherwick comes from a creative family. His Special has also been used to describe
mother was a bead collector with a shop on Heatherwick’s design for the U.K. pavilion at the
Portobello Road, and his father, a musician, Shanghai Expo, opening this month. In winning
introduced him to architecture and design early the commission, his studio beat out a number of
on. Because of his bohemian upbringing, the British firms, including Zaha Hadid Architects.
designer was initially wary of working in the The finalized design, he says, emphasizes texture
luxury market but became attuned to it after over shape. This is another theme in Heather-
launching Thomas Heatherwick Studio (which wick’s work: His 184-foot starburst B of the Bang
has since dropped the Thomas from its name) in sculpture, built to mark the Manchester Com-
1994. “Luxury is only relative to what you believe monwealth Games in 2002, was so textural it was
luxury to be,” he says, remarking that taking a almost dangerous, having to be dismantled last
solitary journey on the Heathrow Express to the year because its metal spikes were falling off.
airport is a greater indulgence for him than “I’m interested in texture,” he says. “In large
getting picked up in a limo: “I’m not comfortable structures, buildings always tend to be shapes:
having a driver in front and not talking to him. There’s the sky, and there’s a building; there’s
Ignoring him makes me feel like I’m being rude.” that shape and that shape. But could we make a
Heatherwick studied 3-D design at Manches- building and sky somehow blend with each
ter Polytechnic, going on to get his MA in other? Could you have a soft building?”
product design at the Royal College of Art, in A maquette of the Shanghai Expo pavilion sits
London. While at rca he happened to meet on a table in the studio. It looks like a combina-
Terence Conran, the U.K.’s foremost designer, tion sea urchin and 1970s fiber-optic lamp, with
artinfo.coM MAY 2010 Modern Painters 31](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)