I'm very interested in buildings that have meaning for a particular place. I suppose it feels slightly rude to me if the imposed style that lands in a place is almost stronger than the place. For me it's about inventing a solution for each place; if people then want to know who did it, then great.

Thomas Heatherwick

More Quotes by Thomas Heatherwick
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More Quotes From Thomas Heatherwick

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

Thomas Heatherwick
rootsjobsideas

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
inventionarchitecturestrong

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
swimmingmeanart

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

Thomas Heatherwick
motivationgovernmentinspiration

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

Thomas Heatherwick
feeltryingpeopleart

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
youmindpositivethinking
To make architecture with any real value is a massive challenge. by Thomas Heatherwick

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

Thomas Heatherwick
challengevaluearchitecturereal

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
amazingcitylovepeople

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
aloneyouexperiencemoney
Clearly I've got an ego. by Thomas Heatherwick

Clearly I've got an ego.

Thomas Heatherwick
clearlygotego

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
knowmeyoubuilding

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
daymomenthopelife

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-solvingbecausememad

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
futurelifepeopleideas

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
youtimelovepeople

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-amchanceworkpeople

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
meimaginationfatherworld

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
buildingappreciateimportantpeople
One great building does not make a great city. by Thomas Heatherwick

One great building does not make a great city.

Thomas Heatherwick
makecitygreatbuilding

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
bridgemegardennature