His first redesigned Routemaster hit the road in February, with seven more slated to travel the streets throughout the Olympics. But how did it all happen? Its dense swath of material is leavened by an airy layout, process diagrams and double page photo-spreads. Raised in London, Heatherwick descends from an artistic tradition. His grandfather was a musician who wrote pacifist poetry, his grandmother head of textiles at Marks and Spencer.
Thomas Heatherwick: Here's how to stop everything looking the same
Thomas Heatherwick on London buses, hairy buildings and a ft-tall KerPlunk | HeraldScotland
View Slideshow. Commissioned to design a pedestrian bridge in his home city of London, he built a structure that rolls into a wheel to make way for passing boats. For a Longchamp boutique in New York, he fashioned a curvaceous ton staircase with fabriclike glass balustrades. Already known as an innovator in the design world, the year-old Royal College of Art graduate is due to reach even greater heights this spring. And at the Olympics opening ceremony—an extravaganza directed by Danny Boyle—it will be a Heatherwick-designed cauldron holding the flame aloft. Architectural Digest: Though you trained as a designer, not an architect, the scale of your projects has increased in recent years.
That's a statement of fact and a statement of intent. He's not a furniture designer. He's not a store designer. He's not an accessories designer.
T homas Heatherwick is well aware of the place the inventor occupies in the popular imagination. And the word 'mad' is also often attached to the word 'inventor. The best entrepreneurs have invented new ideas for business.