Thomas Heatherwick brings together design, architecture and urban planning to create soulful and interesting places that spark emotion and celebrate complexity.

Why you should listen

Thomas Heatherwick leads Heatherwick Studio, where he collaborates with a team of 200 architects, designers and makers to create buildings, spaces, master plans, objects and infrastructure. The studio focuses on large-scale projects in cities all over the world, prioritizing those with the greatest positive social impact and the smallest possible climate shadow. Heatherwick's approach applies artistic thinking to the needs of each project, resulting in some of the most acclaimed designs of our time.

Based in London, Heatherwick Studio is currently working on more than 30 projects in ten countries, including Toranomon-Azabudai, a six-hectare mixed-use development in the center of Tokyo, the new headquarters for Google in Silicon Valley and London (in collaboration with Bjarke Ingels Group) and Airo, an electric car that cleans the air as it drives. Recently completed projects also include the Little Island at Pier 55 in New York, the Coal Drops Yard retail district in King's Cross, London, and Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town. Heatherwick's forthcoming book, Humanise, will be published by Penguin in 2023.

Thomas Heatherwick’s TED talks

More news and ideas from Thomas Heatherwick

Live from TED2022

Cities: Notes from Session 9 of TED2022

April 13, 2022

The future of cities is inextricably tied to the future of humanity. They’re sites of innovation, culture, community building — and, at the same time, home to some of the world’s most intractable problems, like homelessness and pollution. In Session 9 of TED2022, six speakers explored an intentionally provocative whiplash of ideas tied to city […]

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In Brief

One TED speaker becomes a college president, another designs a beautiful new perfume bottle …

October 14, 2016

The TED community has been very busy over the past few weeks. Below, some newsy highlights. Wellesley has a new president. Dr. Paula Johnson, a longtime champion of women’s health and health policy, is Wellesley College’s 14th president. The celebrations surrounding her inauguration focused on the theme of Intersections; in her inauguration address, she reflected […]

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