Profile:
Thomas Heatherwick is one of the
UK’s most prolific designers, whose
varied work over two decades
is characterised by its originality,
inventiveness and humanity.
Defying conventional classifications,
Thomas founded his studio in 1994
to bring together architecture,
urban planning, product design
and interiors into a single creative
workspace. Working across multiple
scales, locations and typologies,
Heatherwick Studio has developed
into a team of over 200 makers and
inventors with no signature style.
Led by human experience rather than
any fixed dogma, the studio creates
emotionally compelling places and
objects with the smallest possible
climate shadow.
From their studios in London and
Shanghai, the team is currently
working on over 30 projects in ten
countries, including Azabudai Hills, a
six-hectare mixed-use development
in the centre of Tokyo, the new
headquarters for Google in London (in
collaboration with Bjarke Ingels Group)
and Airo, an electric car that cleans
the air as it drives.
The studio has also recently
completed Bay View, Google’s first
ground-up campus and Little Island,
a park and performance space on the
Hudson River in New York as well as
the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art
Africa in Cape Town; and Coal Drops
Yard, a major new retail district in
King’s Cross, London. Thomas’ book,
Humanise, was published by Penguin in
October 2023.
Thomas
Heatherwick
ph / Raquel Diniz
