Architect – Thomas Heatherwick
I realised that most of my favourite architectures and artworks are built by Thomas Heatherwick until watching his Ted Talk yesterday. He is a shining star for me due to his ability of designing. I will introduce two of his projects which make me impressive.
Seed cathedral 2010
The most popular project in China is seeds cathedral which built in Shanghai in 2010 World Expo. Most of people might not interested in the exterior of architecture. Honestly, I don’t like it either many years ago. But the design and concept is sustainable.
There are 66,000 acrylic tubes projecting from the wall in t center. These tubes would wiggle with wind. What amazing is that there are no lampes inside of building. Thomas use the day light through these tubes lighting internal space in the morning. In addition, the LED white light enable to illumination at night. I could get some thought from this kind of notional design.
Furthermore, he considered visitors’ walking streamline by using hard paper and raising the ground to make a room for people take a break and parking. I could tell the architect is really good at using space.
Power station 2009
Generally, the power station is forbidden zone for general public. However, Thomas broke my traditional concept with this project.
The design perspective comes from volcano. He combined seperate stations together with that shape. And also rase the ground of public park outside to inspire people coming inside of building. Because of surrounding view of the power station is very mesmerising. Thinking outside the box is the rarified ability but essential capability for the architects and art workers. In my opinion, I think sometimes the shape of building might not extraordinary while the concept and method is beyond everything.
Reference:
http://www.heatherwick.com/projects/bilding/uk-provailion
Chen 