Thomas Heatherwick is one of the world's most prolific designers,
whose varied work over two decades is characterised by its
originality, inventiveness and humanity. Defying conventional
classifications, Heatherwick founded his studio in 1994 to bring
together architecture, urban planning, product design and interiors
into a single creative workspace. Led by human experience rather
than any fixed dogma, the studio creates emotionally compelling
places and objects with the smallest possible carbon footprint.
From their base in London, Heatherwick's team is currently working
on over thirty projects in ten countries, including
Toranomon-Azabudai, a six-hectare mixed-use development in the
centre of Tokyo, the new headquarters for Google in London and
Airo, an electric car that cleans the air as it drives.
The studio has also recently completed Bay View, Google's first
ground-up campus and Little Island, a park and performance space on
the Hudson River in New York as well as the Zeitz Museum of
Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town; and Coal Drops Yard, a major
new retail district in King's Cross, London.
Humanise is a masterwork. It's quietly furious, impassioned,
rigorous and forensic in all the right doses. It leaves me very
hopeful indeed about how things could go from here. The Age of
Boring might just have ended right now
*Alain de Botton*
Thomas Heatherwick echoes many things I find myself saying as I
travel round the country. How the hell did that monstrosity get
built? Why is this place so depressing? Why is so much of the built
environment so boring? This book will wind up quite a few
architects, planners and developers who labour under the delusion
that they are the adults in the room. Good. These people need to
develop some compassion for the people who have to live with their
joyless, bland, unlovable creations. This book is a super
accessible guide as to why we shouldn't put up with soulless
buildings and how we might change that
*Grayson Perry*
Thomas Heatherwick brings a velvet sledgehammer to the way we think
about buildings and how they change our lives. In simple, elegant
words, he demands that we put people first. Not developers,
politicians or architects. I want to live in the kind of city
Heatherwick imagines! Vive la revolution!
* Simon Sinek, Optimist and New York Times-bestselling author
of Start with Why and The Infinite Game*
This book will help frustrated ordinary people and communities see
what is possible
*David Byrne*
A revelation. Humanise offers an accessible, compelling and
entirely unique perspective on the world in which we live.
Heatherwick’s storytelling ability shines through on each and every
page - pushing boundaries and challenging perspectives. At a time
where thoughtful and constructive ideas and solutions, that put the
public at the centre of decision-making, are sought more than ever
- this book provides a spark to ignite conversations across our
city, country and the globe on how to build a better world for
everyone
*Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London*
Heatherwick makes the case for human buildings that nurture our
health and happiness. Out with the 'blandemic' of boring buildings
and let's get back to interestingness. He calls for us all to
engage with our built environment and so we should
*Dame Sally Davies*
Architecture has the ability to uplift and inspire, support
connection, and fuel invention - bringing life and vitality to our
cities by making them better, more beautiful, more sustainable
places to live and work. Thomas Heatherwick's new book offers us a
powerful prescription for buildings that put the public first and
help set the course for a brighter future for humanity
*Mike Bloomberg, entrepreneur, philanthropist, former Mayor of New
York City*
In a social and economic tour de force, Thomas Heatherwick explodes
the waste of bad design: the neighbourhoods destroyed, the
wellbeing lost, the carbon burned. And then he pivots to the
potential of bending the straight line into a curve, the building
into the feeling, and the narrowly rational into the fully
human
*Mark Carney*
Humanise ignites the urgent public conversation I've been calling
for for years
*Sir Terry Farrell CBE, architect and urban designer*
A book that will change how you see the world
*Simon Jenkins*
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