Architect Thomas Heatherwick On China's Building Boom, 'Soulless' Architecture, And More

Architect Thomas Heatherwick is best known for projects such as the "Seed Cathedral" designed for the Shanghai Expo, the Littlehampton East Beach Cafe, and London's rolling bridge, among others. Heatherwick was one of the speakers featured at the 2011 TED conference and HuffPostTech editor Bianca Bosker sat down with Heatherwick following his TED talk on Tuesday.

HP: What do you make of the building boom taking place in China?
TH: "There's obviously an optimism that is exciting to be around...It feels like more than just a country reconnecting itself together and rewiring itself."

"[Chinese developers are] open to the idea that people who think in new ways can think in new ways on their project. You don't just have to mimic or plagiarize yourself...[I'm very interested in] how to do something that feels like it could only happen in China and isn't just in an international style."

What do you hope your buildings accomplish?
"The aspiration is to try to make something that can be special by itself and isn't about who's designed it as much as it is its own project with its own character."

What is your creative process?
"In the studio for the last 16 ½ years we've been trying to develop rather than a style, a system for thinking and developing new ideas. It's less about singular moments of inspiration and me leaping out of a bath and sketching something--rather, I rely on a team of people where we work together and have a way that we focus our thought on a design issue or problem."

"In some ways it's a bit like trying to solve a crime, it's quite forensic. You're narrowing and narrowing and narrowing down and eliminating from your inquiries."
[At this point during the interview an enormous cockroach crawled across the carpet directly in front of Heatherwick. He remarked, calmly, "That is a massive cockroach. That is huge. That's the biggest cockroach I've seen."]

You talked about "soulless" buildings during your TED talk. What do you mean by this?
"When I was first studying and designing, I found that this thing called 'architecture' meant a very cerebral activity. To be an architect you were a high intellectual and very good at maths and it was all about quite cold drawings. When you saw things built, you could really feel that there wasn't a passion in the making [of them] or in the physicality of what was being created. They were to some extent intellectual excercises made real."

Where do your ideas come from?
"I'm very interested in distinctiveness...As I've gotten older and had the chance to travel more, I've found that places are getting more and more similar, to the point where I've been places and I've recognized a building in construction somewhere and I already know who's designed it. Rather than thinking of a building as unique to its place, I've seen the same kinds of buildings built in cold Canada as Abu Dhabi. What's the point in traveling if what you arrive at is similar?"

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Comments

[serpentoracp]

07:54 PM on 03/08/2011

Just a correction, but heatherwick is NOT an architect. He's an artist/ designer who hires architects in his firm. One does not need to be an architect to design buildings, but we (architects) have fought far too hard (with extremely low pay comparable to other professions of similar education/ fiduciary duties/ safety responsibilities) to have the title of architect, so at least leave us that one thing...
Another beautiful building of his: the Longchamp store in Soho. Really interesting staircase.

[Said One]

07:13 PM on 03/05/2011

Thats why its very important for the Concrete Institute of America to start offering certification to all the places they partner with:

http://www.concrete.org/ABOUT/ab_IntPartners.htm

And to join Microsoft so that concrete certification exams are available at all the Microsoft official testing venues - worldwide - would be excellent for job creation and in order to make sure American standards are prevalent in the industry (which means more employment for USA based companies selling cement etc)

[AlexDL]

12:41 PM on 03/02/2011

Dear Huffington Post content managers,

Please provide links to the original content that you are commenting on. Linking to other Huffpo pages is kinda douchey.

Thank you,

A daily visitor that wants you to reward other good internet sites with worthy content and not just farm page clicks for yourselves.

[European1919]

07:44 AM on 03/02/2011

Wanna know about architecture?
Read up on Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, the Bauhaus architects, Antti Lovag, ...

[AlexDL]

12:36 PM on 03/02/2011

Time does move forward.
While it is both reasonable and intelligent to learn from the great masters that you listed it is also important to move forward as those great architects did during their time. That is why they are considered great today.

[david5000]

07:39 AM on 03/02/2011

Does it matter how you stack sardines in a can?

When you have no place and you have a growing population, any type of housing will do.

[centered1]

09:54 AM on 03/02/2011

As a student of Architecture, I would say that when you have a growing population and no place is EXACTLY when it matters most how you stack sardines in a can.

Good planning at the early stages is the key to a liveable and enjoyable city. Good design at the early stages makes a dwelling that people can enjoy and everyone's quality of life is elevated as a result.

[david5000]

10:02 AM on 03/02/2011

I agree 100%, I was simply joking. You're a good sport. I will fan you for this.

[orchidOne]

08:52 PM on 03/02/2011

It's China how good can it be really

[rsheeran]

05:14 AM on 03/02/2011

China is moving so fast to meet demand for domestic growth that they are failing to grow culturally. Old China had a wonderful design sense and influenced the world with innovation and practical simplicity. The people's movement discouraged that. Chinese influence in design is just now returning to prominence as students of architecture and design graduate and gain recognition. Industrial design and fashion are already showing signs of a new China influence. Like anything, this will take time but it is on the rise.

[StansDad]

02:27 PM on 03/02/2011

and creating millions and millions of new buildings that remain empty.

[DAE]

02:22 AM on 03/06/2011

This popular "urban" myth, that China is building phantom cities in the desert is too funny to take seriously. In actual fact the city that has led to this urban legend is Ordos City, a new municipality established in 2001. It is meant to be a new city to capitalize on the push to develop China's western regions.

As Wikipedia notes: Ordos City It is located within the Ordos Loop of the Yellow River. It is officially a daji shi or prefecture-level city, but shi ('city') here means a city and its surrounding district. The seat of government at Dongsheng. Ordos City (ᠣᠷᠳᠣᠰ ᠬᠣᠲᠠ) proper is a new town being built in the west-center of the region south of Baotou. The Ordos Shi was founded on February 26, 2001 on the basis of the former Yeke Juu league (Chinese: 伊克昭盟 Yikezhao Meng; Mongol: ᠶᠡᠺᠡ ᠵᠣᠤ), a name used for the area since the 17th Century. "Ordos" means "palaces" in the Mongolian language; the name is sometimes claimed to be related to the eight white yurts of Genghis Khan.