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As with any great architecture, furniture design is a nimble synthesis of form and function. In the case of chairs, some designers have artfully combined both to create visually striking objects that are actually comfortable to sit and work in. The Eames line of chairs has of course received... View full entry
[...] has ordered a review of the procurement process for London’s garden bridge design after the Architects’ Journal revealed apparent irregularities in the tendering process. [...]
Heatherwick’s £173,000 fee was more than three times more expensive than the £49,939 offer by Wilkinson Eyre, and more than 11 times that of the £15,125 offer by Marks Barfield.
[...] cost of the project could fund 30 new London parks or 30 times the amount of open space the bridge would provide.
— theguardian.com
Previously View full entry
Google's ambitious £1 billion King's Cross development, which will be the technology giant's European headquarters, has faced repeated delays since it was first announced back in 2013. The project currently has "no target completion date." — Business Insider
This news came to Business Insider via "a source close to Heatherwick", although neither Google nor Heatherwick has commented on it at this time. Heatherwick is already pinned to the expansion of Google's Mountain View headquarters, along with Bjarke Ingels of BIG. Previous designs by local firm... View full entry
As controversy carries on over the notorious Garden Bridge by Heatherwick Studio proposed for London's South Bank, some opposers of the project are expressing their discontent with good ol' British satire in the soon-to-be-launched "Folly for London" competition. If you have a cheeky sense of humor, you'll have fun in this one. — bustler.net
Previously on ArchinectUPDATE, June 15, 2015: Will Jennings, artist and initiator of the "Folly for London" competition, sent us this statement to further explain the cause until the design ideas contest officially opens for entries.Details of the competition will be announced in due course and we... View full entry
Google already had building rights for a fifth site overlooking Charleston Park, just east of the current Googleplex [...]
A 2007 lease agreement allows Google to build up to 595,000 square feet of office and commercial space there. [...]
The new plans feature the same futuristic designs by European architects Bjarke Ingels and Thomas Heatherwick that were part of the larger plan debated by the city this year.
— mercurynews.com
For some background on the Googleplex expansion plans: Google loses to LinkedIn in Silicon Valley HQ pitchCritical response to Googleplex expansion focuses on suburban development, not architectureGoogle Unveils BIG + Heatherwick Studios Collaboration for New Campus Master Plan View full entry
Prior to his artist talk at the Hammer Museum last week, nearing the culmination of his massively successful "Provocations" show, Thomas Heatherwick spoke with Paul and Amelia about his firm's personality and design approach. We discuss his interview on this week's single-focus episode, touching... View full entry
Campaigners opposed to the planned Garden Bridge over the River Thames in London have won the right to challenge a council's approval for it.
The judicial review of Lambeth Council's decision to give planning permission for the £175m bridge will be heard in June.
Questions were raised about bridge's funding and its impact on views across the river of St Paul's Cathedral.
— bbc.com
Previously: Let the fighting begin: London Garden Bridge faces legal challenge View full entry
After Heatherwick Studio won the competition to design the Learning Hub at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, the cocoon-like building finally opened its doors this week. Alongside Heatherwick Studio, CPG Consultants worked as the Lead Architect and Sustainability Consultant for... View full entry
"From the beginning, I wanted to give a sense of the variety of scale of the studio’s projects, from the more intimate objects like the Christmas cards to large-scale mockups like those for the Paternoster Square vents. [...]
Thomas is trained as a designer and not as an architect and he has always made things as a way to test his ideas. He often mentions how unusual it is that most architects have never actually made anything themselves." – Brooke Hodge
— LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design
When news broke that Heatherwick Studio would be collaborating with BIG on Google's campus expansion, many were hearing Thomas Heatherwick's name for the first time. "Provocations", the first exhibition devoted to Heatherwick Studios to be shown in North America, will make sure that Heatherwick... View full entry
This week Amelia, Paul, Donna and Ken discuss the somewhat controversial Google Headquarters design by BIG and Heatherwick. On a completely different note, we also discuss the new, and the nation's first, slavery museum, Whitney Plantation, in Louisiana. As always, you can send us your... View full entry
“Silicon Valley has been the cradle of a series of innovations that, over the last decades, have propelled technology and [the] world economy, but all of the resources, all of the intelligence, has been invested into the immaterial, the digital realm, the internet,” asserts Bjarke Ingels of... View full entry
A legal challenge is being launched in the High Court against plans to build a garden bridge over the River Thames in central London.
A south London resident claims Lambeth Council unlawfully granted planning permission for the £175m bridge.
Michael Ball, from Tulse Hill in Lambeth, fears its impact will be "devastating".
Lambeth Council said the bridge would potentially benefit "both the local and wider London economy".
— bbc.com
Previously View full entry
The Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio exhibition presents the design concepts behind the span of projects that British designer Thomas Heatherwick and his London-based studio have created worldwide. Currently at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas until January... View full entry
The latest edition of Working out of the Box: featured Hendo Hoverboard inventor and co-founder of Arx Pax, Greg Henderson. You can hear the full interview with Greg with his wife Jill, co-founder of Arx Pax, as part of episode 4 of Archinect Sessions here. Click here to subscribe. Meanwhile... View full entry
[...] the bridge will be closed at night, won't allow entry to cyclists or groups of 8 or more without prior booking, and will ocassionally be closed off for fundraising events. Right. So less a public bridge than a privately-managed tourist attraction, then. [...]
The east of London, on the other hand, could actually use another crossing, with or without limits to access
— citymetric.com
Previously: London's Garden bridge: 'It feels like we're trying to pull off a crime' View full entry
