As a teenager, my father took me to the shows at the Architectural Association and to places like Milton Keynes back when it was first being built. But I couldn't find anything for me. There seemed to be despair at the possibility of the built environment possessing any imagination in the real world.

Thomas Heatherwick

Categorized in : Me World Father Imagination

At the root of everything I do is a fascination with ideas – what ideas are for, what jobs they do.

Thomas Heatherwick

roots jobs ideas

I have a strong sense that every project is an invention, which is not a word I hear being used in architecture courses

Thomas Heatherwick

invention architecture strong

Museums just seem to have this borrowed cachet—if I want to seem cultural, I will design something cultural. I resist the idea that culture is only opera houses or theatres. Culture is your entire life around you: toilets, the bus, the kerb or the dump where you drag your waste. Culture has come to mean the arts, but it’s swimming pools as well.

Thomas Heatherwick

swimming mean art

The British government - any government - is potentially the worst [architectural] client in the world.

Thomas Heatherwick

motivation government inspiration

I don't feel I'm trying to make art. I'm trying to make interesting things. People can relate to that.

Thomas Heatherwick

feel trying people art

I try to be a positive person, but I'm also always looking and wondering, 'Maybe this could be done differently.' As soon as your mind is in a critical mode, you're halfway through designing; as soon as you start thinking about whether something could be better, you're already halfway through a solution.

Thomas Heatherwick

you mind positive thinking

To make architecture with any real value is a massive challenge.

Thomas Heatherwick

challenge value architecture real

I'm in love with cities. I find them amazing, the quiet co-ordination of thousands of people, going about what we're trying to do, and that organism of the city nurturing human aspiration, and the actual city fabric itself being a special thing rather than just infrastructure.

Thomas Heatherwick

amazing city love people

You can make people feel valued or cared for by design alone. It's not purely about money. It's about how we choose to value human experience.

Thomas Heatherwick

alone you experience money

Clearly I've got an ego.

Thomas Heatherwick

clearly got ego

It gives me the creeps when I see a frame for a building going up and recognise the architect. You shouldn't know who a project is by.

Thomas Heatherwick

know me you building

The Garden Bridge has not found its right moment, but I hope one day it will and that London continues to be open to ideas that make life here better.

Thomas Heatherwick

day moment hope life

I'm wary of the word 'inventing,' because in the British psyche the word 'inventor' is immediately linked with 'mad'. For me, inventing is problem-solving.

Thomas Heatherwick

problem-solving because me mad

An interest in ideas is a sign of human life. People are fascinated by what the future is going to be - and the future is going to be an accumulation of ideas.

Thomas Heatherwick

future life people ideas

I studied at a time when buildings were sterile things, and their creators were hands-off people - super-intelligent people, but you felt they didn't love the stuff buildings are made from.

Thomas Heatherwick

you time love people

I am finally getting the chance to build large structures and break preconceptions that my designs are just sculptures for people to be in. But my work always comes down to the human scale.

Thomas Heatherwick

i-am chance work people

It's important for people who criticise architects - whether what they build is or isn't to your taste - to appreciate how they devote themselves and put everything into bringing a building into existence.

Thomas Heatherwick

building appreciate important people

One great building does not make a great city.

Thomas Heatherwick

make city great building

When I heard of the 'garden bridge' idea, it seemed so clear and powerful, the notion of using nature to scale down an enormous piece of potentially wind-swept exposed link. That's what struck me - not treating the bridge just as a link, but as a place.

Thomas Heatherwick

bridge me garden nature

I've always been interested in projects that work at multiple levels.

Thomas Heatherwick

interested been always work