Heatherwick Studio

The Heatherwick Studio show "Designing the Extraordinary" at the V&A museum covers the wide range of the work of Thomas Heatherwick and his team. Heatherwick bridges the gap between designer, sculptor and architect and therefore you can enjoy a massive breadth of work, from skyscrapers to structure models, bridges sculptures and fabric design. Almost every piece of their work is a source of inspiration and demonstrates the creativity of this design team. They fundamentally do the whole design process in-house, from the very beginning to the end, often creating a mass of highly detailed working models.

B of the Bang      

For me one of their most impressive designs is the Cor-Ten steel sculpture called "B of the Bang". The name of the sculpture refers to a statement of British sprinter Linford Christie, who said he started his races not just at the "bang" of the starting pistol, but at "the B of the Bang". The construction of this sculpture has been accompanied by  a vast number structural difficulties and the launch has been delayed several times but the final result is breathtaking. The sculpture occurs to be extremely fragile almost vulnerable and although it is a heavyweight structure it appears that it could disappear in any moment. Heatherwick has the rare talent to catch with his designs the tipping point, "the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point".

UK Pavilion Shanghai Expo 2010

Another remarkable Heatherwick design is the "Seed Cathedral", UK's exhibition Pavilion created for the Shanghai Expo in 2010. The actual building uses only one fifth of the available space. The remaining area provided some kind of "breathing space", where visitors could relax and focus on the main object by separating it from its stressful environment. The building itself consists of 60.000 identical rods of clear acryl that covers 250.000 seeds casted into glassy tips in the inside. This seeds have been chosen  to represent the role of nature in the cities of the future. The "needles" are responsible for the special appearance of the building. Its surface appears to be highly tangible and again the studio was able to give some kind of soul to an object. The cube seems to protect the seeds located in the inside with its spread needles like it is anxious that they get lost forever.

Guy's hospital & Paternoster Vents

The Guy's Hospital by Heatherwick Studio (left) was settle near London Bridge on 2007. The Studio re-designed this hospital for solving the confusion around and inside the hospital. 

The Paternoster Vents (right)  was designed as a cooling system for a  underground electricity substation around St Paul's Catherdral. 

The shapes of Heatherwick studio's works are various, but some of them use the same way to shape. By simply copy and paste with tiny change, the basic geometric elements become the soft curls and the distorted bodies which seems have life. For this reason, the designs have both of strong vitality and pure beauty. This typical character is shown in the Guy's hospital and Paternoster Vents . But we also can find it in the Seed Cathedral, B for Bang, rolling bridges, Shueng Wan Hotel and other Heatherwick's works.

Pacific Place 

A premier shopping destination adjacent to Admiralty MTR interchange station, Hong Kong. This project was led by Thomas Heatherwick, this project includes upgrading the cinema, uplifting interior décor, revamping common areas, redesigning shop facades and reconfiguring facilities to meet the changing needs of shoppers. 

What I like about this project is the use of different materials which gives a very natural look to the building. And the use of curved along the entire building.The designer Thomas Heatherrwick avoids the use of conventional forms is what makes it a different building. I like the fact that all the different elements are  very well integrated in space.

What caught my attention in particular was the lift buttons and the bathrooms. the button design is very original and futuristic, and the idea to enclosed the toilet cubicles in the ondulating wood surface breaks completely with traditional aesthetics of the bathrooms providing a completely new concept.

London bus

In January 2010, Heatherwick Studio joined the team commissioned by London’s mayor to develop the design of a new bus for London. This was the first bus to be designed specifically for the capital in more than fifty years.

This bus would have two staircases and three doors. It would have a conductor to look after passengers and an open platform, which would give Londoners their freedom once more to get on and off the bus at will, but this would be enclosed outside peak hours. Having set the environmental target of using 40% less fossil fuel than existing buses, the team developed a hybrid vehicle, powered by both electricity and diesel, seeking to make it as lightweight as possible. 

I am very interested in the variety and beautiful shapes of the products he designed like the London bus. This bus could be considered a successor.   “hop on ,hop off ” rear platform provide a pleasant passenger experience .Exotic materials, shape changes in different ways, challenge the limit of our imagination.

  

Rolling Bridge

Thomas Heatherwick’s Rolling Bridge, completed in 2004 at Grand Union Canal Paddington Basin, London, is one of the most unique bridges in the world. A small pedestrian crossing, it is designed to curl up to allow boats through the inlet and uncurl again over the water.

As cities become denser infrastructure which has been historically static may need to share space with other needs. The Rolling Bridge is a useful exercise in seeing the potential of shape changing technologies and engineering which can literally transform the built environment.

I learned a lot about the relationship between the exterior shape design and the real function of the products through the heatherwick Studio . The real function here I just mean the function that people really need or expect. In the heatherwick studio, I saw many beautiful products , for example the Rolling Bridge , a quick glance that you can be attracted by its unique appearance . However, when we have a close look at it ,we can find that these products do not just have beautiful appearance , they have a perfect combination between the exterior shape and the function of itself. This point comes from the bottom of my heart.