Talk:Thomas Heatherwick

Updates to Thomas Heatherwick's Biography Page

Hi editors, Here are some updates I would like to request to keep the article up to date with current data and available information, as well as some new information :-) thank you for your time.

• What I think should be changed (include citations):
• (top) Update to the number of people in the team (200>250) and having received awards in architecture as well as design. Add two more recent projects to the top, the New Routemaster and Little Island, instead of The Garden Bridge

(top)

He works with a team of more than 250 architects, designers and makers from his studio in King's Cross, London. Heatherwick's projects, many of which have won design and architecture awards, include the UK pavilion at Expo 2010, the renovation of the Hong Kong Pacific Place, the Olympic cauldron for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, Vessel in New York City, the New Routemaster bus, and Little Island in New York. Heatherwick has promoted human-centered design in architecture through a book, lectures, a TED talk, and advocacy in education.

• Life and Career: Add information about recently published and updated books

Life and Career

In 2012 he published the book Making which is a comprehensive survey of Heatherwick Studio’s projects. It was updated in 2013, 2015, and 2024. In 2023 he published Humanise: A Maker’s Guide to Building Our World with Penguin Random House. The book argues that a flawed idea of utility and efficiency has engulfed our towns and cities and hardened into a form of bland minimalism. It explores the importance of human-centered design in architecture, advocating for buildings that prioritize emotional and social well-being. Heatherwick was appointed the general director of the 2025 Seoul Biennal of Architecture and Urbanism. Under the theme ‘Radically more Human’ it will explore ways to make cities and buildings more joyful.

Selected Works

• 2012 Olympic Cauldron: Add a quote from a journalist interview given at the 2024 olympics.
• Bombay Sapphire distillery: update the numbers of visitors.
• Zeitz MOCAA: add information about the building's age.
• Vessel: Update that the structure was reopened in 2024, it is no longer closed.
• Google headquarters: add information the building project.
• Maggie's Leeds: add a section about the medical center
• Little Island: add a section that refers to the main article about Little Island.
• Xi'an CCBD: add a section about Xi'an CCBD
• Azabudai Hills: add a section about Azabudai Hills, Tokyo.

2012 Olympic Cauldron

When the cauldron was lit, was referred to by Hazel Irvine, reporter at the BBC, as one of the most beautiful and special moments she ever witnessed.

Bombay Sapphire distillery

Opened in 2014, it has since welcomed more than 600,000 visitors for events and tours.

Zeitz MOCAA

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa opened on September 22, 2017, and celebrated the building’s centenary on September 24, 2024.

Vessel

Vessel was closed to public access from July 2021 to October 2024 following a number of suicides. It re-opend with the spaces between the levels closed off with steel mesh safety netting to prevent further incidents.

Google headquarters

The project was Google’s first ground-up office space, having previously only bought or rented pre-built offices, and done renovations. The building’s roof collects rainwater, and is covered in photovoltaic solar panels for electricity production.

Maggie's Leeds

St. James's University Hospital

Maggie's centres are a network of drop-in centres across the United Kingdom and abroad that aim to help anyone who has been affected by cancer. They are intended as welcoming and caring environments that provide support, information and practical advice to people dealing with a cancer diagnosis.

The Maggie’s Leeds or Maggie’s Yorkshire project was a commissioned project by the charity for a centre on the campus of St James’s University Hospital in Leeds.

Little Island

Main article: Little Island at Pier 55

In 2012, following a design competition, the Hudson River Park Trust and the Furstenberg Family Foundation appointed Heatherwick Studio to design a new pier on Manhattan's southwest riverside. The park officially opened on May 21, 2021.

Inspired by the remnants of old piers and wooden piles in the Hudson River, the design for Pier 55—a public park and outdoor performance space—transformed the necessary concrete piles for structural support into a distinctive landscape typography.

Beyond serving as a 2.4-acre public park for the city, Little Island is a dynamic cultural space featuring an outdoor amphitheater for 687 people, a smaller performance area for 200, a large plaza with winding pathways and viewing platforms, and integrated back-of-house facilities. The programming includes music, dance, theater, poetry, comedy, and arts workshopsr.

Research in 2024 indicated that 1.5million people visit the park each year.”

Xi'an CCBD

The Xi’an Centre Culture Business District (CCBD) is located south of the city’s historic centre. The area encompass both private and public spaces in a total of 155,000 square meters. The building’s facade is composed of ceramic cladding, and features ceramic columns and beams with glazed tiles. It opened to the public in December 2024. More than 100,000 tiles were created locally by craftsman in Xi'an; the city which is home to the Terracotta Army.

Azabudai Hills

Main article: Azabudai Hills

Azabudai Hills is an 81,000-square-meter mixed-use development in Minato City, Tokyo. The project integrates public, private, and commercial spaces within 2.4 hectares. The design features curving, pergola-inspired structures with landscaped roofs and pedestrian pathways.

In Development

• In development: add a sub-section with projects that are under construction and that have milestones that have been made public.

• The Olympia London project is the renovation and modernization of a 140 year-old exhibition and event space in West London. The majority of the building is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025.
• Heatherwick Studio and Bjarke Ingels Group collaborated on the design for Google's London headquarters at King's Cross. The building, nicknamed the 'landscraper', includes a roof garden.
• In 2024, Heatherwick Studio won a design competition to redevelop Nodeul Island on Seoul’s Han River into a public park.

Other notable works and projects

• Spun chair 2010
• Friction table (2017)
• Harley Davidson Park, 2024

Approach do design

• Approach to design: add information about the book published in 2023, as well as related interviews, public speaking engagements, partnerships with other organizations.

Heatherwick has been interviewed on podcasts and broadcast shows in regards to his design and architecture principles, including Monocle on Design, BBC Radio 4 and Bloomberg Radio. He describes living through “architecture’s global blandemic” and how architects should design for street level human experiences. In an interview with Simon Sinek on his podcast A Bit of Optimism he shares how more people will experience a building from the outside than will ever go inside it.

In an interview with the Korean architect and YouTuber Hyunjoon Yoo, Heatherwick said of his projects: “One thing I’ve tried to do is be wholehearted with them, because so often places are half-hearted or quarter-hearted and so to be more generous with them [for the public], that’s our goal.”

Advocacy in Education

Heatherwick Studio advocates for design, art and architecture activities across the UK. In 2024 it began an apprenticeship program. Loughborough University is developing a masters program with Heatherwick Studio. Heatherwick Studio also published academic resources to help architects engage younger audiences.

Exhibitions and Publications

• Exhibitions and publications: Add information about missing exhibitions and publications

Coinciding with the Victoria & Albert exhibition, Thames and Hudson published Thomas Heatherwick: Making. A second volume was released in 2013, and third in 2024.

The exhibition Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio travelled from Hammer Museum in Los Angeles to the Nasher in Dallas, to the Cooper-Hewitt in New York, between 2014 and 2016.

Humanise, published in 2023, is a book by Thomas Heatherwick that argues for a more human-centered approach to design in architecture and urban planning. Challenging the dominance of profit-driven development and power-focused politics, Heatherwick highlights how soulless, business-oriented buildings contribute to societal unhappiness and environmental harm. Drawing on previous experience, as well as insights from neuroscience and cognitive psychology, he presents a case for reintroducing emotion into the design process. Through storytelling and imagery, Humanise serves as both a critique of the status quo and a call to reshape the world around us for the better.

The accompanying campaign is a 10-year effort to gather research related to the varying impacts of design on human health.

Awards

* Add the following missing awards.

• East Beach Cafe won a Civic Trust Award in 2008.
• UK Pavilion, Shanghai Expo 2010 won the RIBA Lubetkin Prize, and the Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award in 2010.
• Bombay Sapphire distillery won the Civic Trust Special Award for Sustainability in 2017.
• Coal Drops Yard won the New London Architecture Award in 2016, and the RIBA National and Regional Award in 2019.
• Zeitz MMOCA won the Chicago Atheneum Good Design Award in 2018, and Civic Trust Award in 2019.
• Bund Finance Center won the China Real Estate Design award in 2018.
• 1000 Trees won the Prix Versailles for Asia Shopping Malls and RICS China Construction Project of the Year, and in 2023 the Achitizer Awards for Shopping Centers, by the jury and by popular choice.
• The Longchamp Store design won the American Institute of Architect Top Honor Award in 2006.
• Studios Complex at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University (2009) won the 2010 RIBA Regional Award.
• EDEN Singapore won the Best Tall Building award from the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, as well as the MIPIM Asia Awards.
• In 2006 he became a recipient of the Prince Philip Designers Prize.
• Bombay Sapphire Distillery was the first drinks manufacturing plant and the first renovation to achieve BREEAM 'outstanding' accreditation.
• Maggie Yorkshire won the 2020 Structural Timber Awards for it’s use of wooden beams in the design. The building also won the Civic Trust Award in 2021, the Dezeen Civic Building Award and RIBA Yorkshire Award in 2022.
• Little Island won the Public Parks & Green Spaces Architizer A+ Award, the Public Parks & Green Spaces Dezeen Award, and the Urban Design Award from Fast Company, all in 2022.
• Google Headquarters in 2022 the office won the ENR Global Best Project Award and Best Office Award.

• Why it should the article be changed:

Some content on the page may no longer reflect the most current information. For instance, figures such as the number of people on Heatherwick Studio’s team or the total visitor numbers for certain buildings may be outdated. Project statuses may also have changed—for example, buildings like Vessel in New York or Azabudai Hills in Tokyo may now be completed, reopened, or reclassified. In addition, certain developments merit inclusion due to their significance, such as the centenary of the Zeitz MOCAA building in Cape Town. Updates should also account for the evolving scope of Heatherwick’s work over the past decade, which now includes greater emphasis on advocacy, education, and writing

• References supporting the possible change (format using the "cite" button):

Conbene (talk) 19:05, 5 May 2025 (UTC)

References

Not done for now: Some of the requested changes are currently written in a promotional tone. Please review WP:Neutral point of view and make changes where appropriate to follow this before reopening the request. Specifically the selected works section. Encoded  Talk 💬 09:28, 13 July 2025 (UTC)

Thank you Encoded! I've made revisions now throughout. Specifically in the selected works section I've moved the awards and reduced text to be factual. If there are further revisions necessary please let me know. Conbene (talk) 15:09, 3 August 2025 (UTC)

The version above is not an improvement on the current article. If you believe that improvements can be made, you'll do better to list them one at a time. Maproom (talk) 18:31, 3 August 2025 (UTC)

Outdated information in the article

Dear editors, I'd like to request the following edits given that certain information is outdated. Thank you.

• What I think should be changed:

Add update the following outdated information.

• (top) Team of 250

He works with a team of more than 250 architects, designers and entrepreneurs from his studio in King's Cross, London.

• Vessel reopened

After full-height steel mesh nets were installed on each level, news media reported in early 2024 that Vessel would reopen later that year, though the top level would remain closed. On October 21, 2024, Vessel reopened; initially, only the lowest two levels and parts of the upper levels were open to the public.

• Zeitz MOCAA

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa is 100 years old on September 24, 2024.

• Thomas Heatherwick: Making

Coinciding with the Victoria & Albert exhibition, Thames and Hudson published Thomas Heatherwick: Making. A second volume was released in 2013, and third in 2024.

• Why it should be changed:

The information in the article is outdated

• The number of staff at Heatherwick Studio has increased to 250—–the same source notes this change.
• The Vessel Building is no longer closed as is noted on the main article.
• Zeitz MOCAA is 100 years old now
• The book Thomas Heatherwick: Making has a third volume published in 2024, as well as a second volume was published in 2013
• References supporting the possible change (format using the "cite" button):

Conbene (talk) 10:45, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

References

Partly done: Only the first two edits were done. Third one is just an anniversary and isn't usually included in this type of article. No opinion on the fourth one. AlphaBetaGamma (Talk/report any mistakes here) 14:08, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

Additions from other Wikipedia Articles

Dear editors, I'd like to request the following additions the article, which is information gathered from other Wikipedia articles. Thank you!

• What I think should be changed:

Add update the following outdated information. Missing Information (from other Wikipedia Pages)

Azabudai Hills

Main article: Azabudai Hills

Azabudai Hills is an 81,000-square-meter mixed-use development in Minato City, Tokyo. Completed in 2023, the project integrates public, private, and commercial spaces within 2.4 hectares. The design features curving, pergola-inspired structures with landscaped roofs and pedestrian pathways.

Little Island

Main article: Little Island at Pier 55

In 2012, following a design competition, the Hudson River Park Trust and the Furstenberg Family Foundation selected Heatherwick Studio to design a new pier on Manhattan's southwest riverside. The park officially opened on May 21, 2021.

The design for Pier 55, based on the wooden piles in the Hudson River, uses the support structure of concrete piles to create a landscape topography.

Little Island is a dynamic park with an outdoor amphitheater for 687 people, a performance area for 200 people, and a large plaza with pathways and platforms.

In 2024 the park attracted 1.5 million visitors.

• Why it should be changed:

Thomas Heatherwick and Heatherwick Studio are mentioned in multiple related Wikipedia articles. I propose adding this information here because it provides relevant context about their involvement with Azabudai Hills and Little Island and ensures consistency across related pages. Including these details also updates the article with information on more recent projects, which improves its completeness and accuracy.

• References supporting the possible change (format using the "cite" button):

Conbene (talk) 11:09, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

References

Not done: A majority of the requested changes are currently written in a promotional tone. Please review WP:Neutral point of view and ensure you follow this before submitting any edit requests. Worth noting, that I see a wall of "list of works" section, which should probably be trimmed to only include ones that have an existing Wikipedia article, and move others to the "other notable works" section. AlphaBetaGamma (Talk/report any mistakes here) 13:59, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

Little Island could be added I think after it's been trimmed and adjusted. It's important enough to warrant its own section. Hzh (talk) 17:03, 24 August 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for the feedback, I've revised the text to better batch the information from the Azabudai Hills and Little Island articles. Conbene (talk) 16:14, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

Little Island added with some adjustments. Hzh (talk) 10:32, 12 October 2025 (UTC)

Add current information

Dear editors, I'd like to request this information be added to the article. Thank you!

• What I think should be changed: Add information about updated books, new books and appointments.

Life and Career

Heatherwick is the general director of the 2025 Seoul Biennal of Architecture and Urbanism, under the theme ‘Radically more Human’.

Exhibitions and Publications

The book Making was updated in 2024. In 2023 he published Humanise: A Maker’s Guide to Building Our World.

• Why it should be changed:

The information is no longer current and should reflect more recent developments; the last information is from 2011.

• References supporting the possible change (format using the "cite" button):

Conbene (talk) 11:05, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

References

Not done: A majority of the requested changes are currently written in a promotional tone. Please review WP:Neutral point of view and ensure you follow this before submitting any edit requests. Likeanechointheforest (talk) 16:11, 16 November 2025 (UTC)

Thank you for the feedback @Likeanechointheforest! I've updated the request now. ~2025-34253-67 (talk) 10:01, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

Thank you! Conbene (talk) 10:55, 17 November 2025 (UTC)

I've gone ahead and implemented now, thanks! Likeanechointheforest (talk) 21:36, 21 November 2025 (UTC)