Thomas Heatherwick

A Maker’s Guide to Building Our World

Humanise

I cannot begin this without the preface that obviously my experience with architectural schools is very different from that of Thomas Heatherwick. Not simply in the fact that he has about 25 years over me but also that I have taken the classical route of training in the UK. This is to say, that in my experience, the ideas that he presents here are already very much taking hold in (some) schools of architecture and urban environment specialisations. And I do also believe that the book tends to oversimplify the matter.

However, Heatherwick is so clearly passionate about his thesis that one cannot help but follow and be moved. (I mean, it is very much a manifesto.)

One thought that I particularly liked - and that I think we do truly often forget in the discussions surrounding construction - is that ornament-heavy buildings still cost a lot at the time when they were built. However, the people who built them decided that the details in the final product (the beautiful façade and intereriors) were more important than matters of cost and profit. (I think this is a bit of an exaggeration and - again - oversimplification but we do not have the time to unpack this here. The sentiment still holds).

The saddest bit? I am not sure the people with the money are picking this book up.

I cannot begin this without the preface that obviously my experience with architectural schools is very different from that of Thomas Heatherwick. Not simply in the fact that he has about 25 years over me but also that I have taken the classical route of training in the UK. This is to say, that in my experience, the ideas that he presents here are already very much taking hold in (some) schools of architecture and urban environment specialisations. And I do also believe that the book tends to oversimplify the matter.

However, Heatherwick is so clearly passionate about his thesis that one cannot help but follow and be moved. (I mean, it is very much a manifesto.)

One thought that I particularly liked - and that I think we do truly often forget in the discussions surrounding construction - is that ornament-heavy buildings still cost a lot at the time when they were built. However, the people who built them decided that the details in the final product (the beautiful façade and intereriors) were more important than matters of cost and profit. (I think this is a bit of an exaggeration and - again - oversimplification but we do not have the time to unpack this here. The sentiment still holds).

The saddest bit? I am not sure the people with the money are picking this book up.

Humanise A Maker’s Guide to Building Our World

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