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concept, all the way through to completion, is very rare and I got to do that with the distillery. It was a very formative experience that I cherish.
DO YOU HAVE A BIG PERSONAL GOAL AS A DESIGNER? I am not a ‘fi ve-year plan’ type of person. In my career I have been grabbing opportunities as they appear, and I like the uncertainty of that. There are typologies of building that I would love to work on, but I don’t have a specifi c goal. I enjoyed the not knowing and then fi nding myself working on a headquarters for a tech company, or a gin distillery, or a boat or a light. Following each of these journeys and being open to them has been amazing and perhaps I would not have done any of them if I had something predetermined in my mind. It might have fi ltered out opportunities. That said, I’d love to work on a hospital, train station or stadium. Even before I joined the studio, I had always loved the design for Teesside Power Station. I love the idea of working on a typology that’s typically unloved, and changing its fate.
WHAT ARE YOUR HOPES FOR THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT? We can all see that housing is a priority for the UK. But quantity should not come at a cost of quality, so we need a mindset shift about new houses. Other than meeting the baseline needs, which is a given, I hope that the new towns announced by the Labour government offer people homes with an incredible sense of joy, sophistication, interest and pride, without costing the earth.
HOW WAS YOUR COLLABORATION WITH SPPARC ON LONDON OLYMPIA? So much of our work is international so we’re really used to working with local architects – almost all our projects are collaborations, although less frequently in the UK. Olympia is such a big project and such a complex opportunity that it was quite natural to collaborate with somebody else. The collaboration was smooth, and we had a clear delineation of our roles from the outset. We worked on the overall master plan vision initially, and then we split down the sites with us focusing on some and SPPARC focusing on others. But the design dialogue and the collaboration sessions were great, and we always felt we were pulling in the same direction.
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Davidson Park, Milwaukee © Harley-Davidson
WHAT IS YOUR NEXT BIG PROJECT? I’ve got a couple of big projects in China. One is an opera house, and the other is a very large mixed-use district with hotels, retail, offi ces, event centres and an amazing landscape. It is a whole ecosystem, which is exciting. I also continue to work in the US, which I have always really enjoyed. We have worked with Google over the last decade, and now with other clients in the San Francisco Bay Area and NY. We recently opened a community park in Milwaukee for Harley-Davidson. The park was one of the venues hosting the Harley- Davidson Homecoming Festival, a four-day celebration of music, moto-culture and Milwaukee in July.
WHAT ARE YOU INVOLVED IN THAT’S NOT DESIGN ‘PER SE’ AT HEATHERWICK? It’s wonderful to work at such different scales. I am working on a lighting design project which explores an unusual typology of light. We’re also designing a glassware range. This is the great thing about the studio – I am working on something like Olympia, or all these huge projects in China, and at the same time get a chance to zoom in and design things that you can quickly prototype one-to-one. Perhaps surprisingly, though, our design processes are quite similar no matter what scale. What we learn at the smaller scale, we end up applying at the bigger scale and the other way round.
HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN YOUR POSITIVE DEMEANOUR IN VERY COMPLEX COLLABORATIONS?
Every project of every scale goes through its challenges, particularly when you’re trying to do something ambitious, like we are at Olympia. In all our projects we’re forever pushing for something ambitious. I think having an almost unhealthily level of optimism has been helpful, always trying to fi nd the positive when the inevitable bumps emerge. We try to see the challenges as an opportunity that has the potential to change the design in the way that you hadn’t expected. Maybe even unlocking something better. So, I guess the answer is – relentless pursuit of optimism.
WHAT’S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE YOU WILL FACE AS A PRACTICE IN THE NEAR FUTURE? I think it’s fair to say we are in an increasingly uncertain world from a political point of view. The invasion of the Ukraine has a massive impact on the industry, driving up costs, impacting supply chains and stopping a lot of international architects’ projects overnight. We work very internationally, so we watch geopolitical changes closely. We’ve got a studio in China, for example and right now, it’s hard to predict what the future holds, so everyone in the industry will be facing this challenge. We do our best to work in lots of different regions, ride the waves of change and remain optimistic.
ADF SEPTEMBER 2024
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