Heatherwick Studio: Designing The Extraordinary

The British architect and designer is celebrated at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in an exhibition featuring his most famous projects alongside the objects and ideas which inspired them.

Thomas Heatherwick may be only 41 years old, but London's Victoria and Albert Museum is already celebrating his work in an exhibition. Sir Terence Conran, his professor at the distinguished Royal College of Art, could hardly have been mistaken when he commissioned him to design a gazebo for his country home. Thomas Heatherwick: Designing the Extraordinary is a fitting title for the anthological exhibition, featuring the ideas of this shy contemporary star who for the first time exhibits his work to the general audience – project after project. Heatherwick is not only an architect and designer, but much more: a carpenter, a tireless explorer and promoter of the multidisciplinary essence of the arts —he is always present when models are produced in his studio-workshop, not far from King's Cross.

He won the design world over long ago, first with his Rolling Bridge in Paddington, a faultless timber and steel contraption that curls up like a snake to close in a perfect wheel shape, and subsequently with his UK Pavilion at the Shanghai 2010 Expo, a design-manifesto of British eccentricity but also a mix of original contents and innovative technology — acrylic fibre applied to a prickly building. It just goes to show that, when properly thought through and with an eye on saving resources, even highly unusual architectural forms can coexist and blend with the urban context, bringing a breath of fresh air and raising a smile.

<em>Heatherwick Studio: Designing The Extraordinary</em>, installation view at the Victoria and Albert Museum — *Heatherwick Studio: Designing The Extraordinary*, installation view at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Heatherwick achieved all this in Shanghai, under the gaze of the entire world, using less than the initially defined space – the square metres saved became a public square – and all on a budget that was less than half that allocated by other European countries. Thirteen million pounds built the Seed Cathedral (or "hairy building", as Heatherwick likes to call it), in a triumphant partnership with the Millennium Seed Bank of the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, for the selection of the 15,000 seeds contained in the 60,000 rods that run through the building from the outside in. The pavilion adopted a recurrent motif, as in Heatherwick's 1997 Harvey Nichols' window display. The seeds were the primary content, "frozen" in transparent acrylic cubes, signifying growth and the commitment to a better future. The Pavilion drew on the children's Barber Shop game (with an original box displayed behind glass) for inspiration, and looked like an ice spaceship in photographs, winning over even the sceptics. Following the expo, the seeds were donated to charity — in a move not originally planned.

Spectacle is intrinsic to Thomas Heatherwick: see his 2005 East Beach Café in the seaside resort of Littlehampton (an iconic British summer destination, along with Blackpool and Brighton) on the English south coast. Resembling a huge sea-monster formed out of a series of staggered metal waves, the café sparked widespread curiosity and has become an attraction in itself. More popular and democratic is his reworking of London's famous, bright red, double-decker bus, designed 50 years ago. The contemporary facelift of this celebrated icon even won the approval of diehard traditionalists — the population anxiously awaits the new fleet of red double-decker Routemasters. Running on a quarter of the fuel, the new buses are eco-friendly at last and will go into service during the Olympics. The presence of these vehicles in the city's fabric is so ubiquitous and distinctive, that the designer sees this project as a piece of urban architecture: experienced every day and by everybody, at all social levels. That is good design.

Heatherwick is truly extraordinary: his mindset drives him to design everyday things simply, in a manner that is not just new and innovative but conveys a message, usually through unusual forms and lines

Alongside his most famous designs, the V&A displays the objects — Roman capitals, marbles, plasticine, clay — and traces of ideas which inspire the creativity of an architect called by some the Leonardo of this century (a comparison can be made between the great Master's machines and the one that, in real time, supplies the exhibition guide: a vertical metal roller device manually turned by a wooden handle to lower the paper, which you tear off at the dotted line). With a large dose of humility, Heatherwick keeps saying that his works are the product of close teamwork in his studio, which he describes as a "joint venture" because he hates other labels.

Some things simply cannot be done alone and engaging different professions (even an acrobat) adds to a project's success, especially when the Thomas Heatherwick studio is asked to conceive and design urban spaces and public works — projects that bring a certain degree of responsibility with them. A significant example is his 2002 B of the Bang, installed outside the Manchester stadium on the occasion of the Commonwealth Games. A gigantic 56-metre steel-spike sculpture, weighing 170 tons, rises out of the ground to look like a starburst in the sky.

Heatherwick is truly extraordinary: his mindset drives him to design everyday things simply, in a manner that is not just new and innovative but conveys a message, usually through unusual forms and lines. He is an architect and, as stated before, a designer (at times, labels help). His much sought-after ultra-sophisticated Extrusion is an enormous piece of extruded aluminium, heated and shaped under 10 tons of pressure, produced in a Chinese factory and exhibited by London's Haunch of Venison Gallery in 2009 — the metal die, weighing more than two tons, was also on display.

The Spun chair (initially produced in aluminium and then in plastic for Italy's Magis) spins on itself like a top and no one cares whether it is comfortable — but it is, and this fun design conveys the playful side of Heatherwick. At the V&A, the exhibition also shows two curved oak doors from his 1994 Twisted Cabinet, which seems to geometrically peel away from itself. Climbing the walls of the crowded room, they represent the wealth of information that Thomas Heatherwick is accustomed to processing, at times all at once. In the same year, he designed his sculptural Bench for public parks that, with its sinuous curves, aims to be as ergonomic as possible and stems from the desire for improved posture, even when relaxing in a garden.

Thames and Hudson's Thomas Heatherwick Making accompanies the exhibition, starting every featured project with a question — because Heatherwick is someone who asks others and himself questions. What is exceptional is his ability to find satisfactory and brand-new answers — a rare combination in current times. The chronological book describes not only his best-known designs, but the approach of an Archimedes of our times who looks to the future while interpreting the resources of the present in the best possible way. The book itself was an unusual adventure that tested the Heatherwick studio — how do you render his work in a 2D format that can be leafed through, with an editing process that is like "pressing flowers". The book is dedicated to the visionary clients who have supported and shared his creativity over the years.

To see him in the news, we must await the 21 July ceremony of the much anticipated — and not just by Her Majesty the Queen — 2012 London Olympics, the third in English history, which will attract millions of visitors to the city from all over the world. Thomas Heatherwick has not only designed the cauldron for the Olympic Flame but also, like a film director, the moment when it is lit. This is the most top-secret project he has ever worked on, and it is anxiously awaited: but not just by the design community. Maria Cristina Didero

Through 30 September 2012
Heatherwick Studio: Designing the Extraordinary
Victoria and Albert Museum
London

Heatherwick Studio: Designing The Extraordinary

The British architect and designer is celebrated at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in an exhibition featuring his most famous projects alongside the objects and ideas which inspired them.

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