A London design and architecture studio founded by Thomas Heatherwick, known for Coal Drops Yard at King's Cross and for work that ranges from objects to city districts.
Heatherwick Studio is a British design and architecture practice founded by Thomas Heatherwick. It is based in London. The studio works across an unusual range of scales, from handheld objects and furniture to bridges, buildings and whole city districts. Its services include buildings, public spaces, masterplans, infrastructure and objects. It comes from a background in three-dimensional design and making, rather than conventional architectural training, so materials, fabrication and physical prototypes often drive its designs.
The studio has no fixed signature style, and its work is led by human experience rather than a set of rules. It aims to create places and objects that people respond to emotionally, while keeping the climate impact as small as it can. Thomas Heatherwick has argued in public that much contemporary development is flat and forgettable and that this is a failure of design. The studio also tends to work within existing structures instead of replacing them, which is better for the climate, and it notes that buildings people value are less likely to be demolished.
In the UK, its most visible project is Coal Drops Yard at King's Cross in London, where two Victorian coal storehouses were turned into about 100,000 square feet of shops and public space, with their roofs joined to form a covered gathering place. The studio's other well-known projects are overseas, such as the UK Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo (the Seed Cathedral, made of thousands of rods each holding a seed), Vessel at Hudson Yards in New York and Little Island in New York. London is the studio's home base.
On people, the directory profile we read says the studio has more than 200 makers and inventors, though the same page also lists the firm in a much larger size band, so the exact figure is uncertain and may be out of date. The use of the words "makers and inventors" is the studio's own way of describing the team, suggesting a place where people from different backgrounds build things, from model-makers to architects. We have not checked this, and the founding year and detailed ownership were not on the page we read.
The studio employs designers and architects, model makers and prototype builders, urban and landscape specialists, project managers, and communications and business teams. If you like making things, sketching ideas, working with different materials, or are curious how an object designer ends up planning a city district, then this studio shows what is possible. Its website shows the latest projects and any vacancies. Note that this is a design studio that sits between architecture and product design, and its place in the architecture sector is on the basis of its buildings and masterplans.
Website: www.heatherwick.com
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