Fresh from winning GQ's 'Cultural Icon' award at this year's Men Of The Year awards and being the man responsible for the stunning 2012 Olympic cauldron Thomas Heatherwick really is the designer of the moment. Boris Johnson has publicly shown his love for Heatherwick commissioning him to design the new Routemaster bus for London which by anyone's standards is a daunting task, taking an already loved and established piece of design and bringing it in to the 21st century. Heatherwick, however, has succeeded. Whether he is designing the new routemaster or the beautiful and yet truly simplistic curling bridge in Paddington his work and his draw is universal. Mayors love him, the public love his work as shown during the 2012 games and the adoration for his seed cauldron.
The new routemaster is evidence of Heatherwick putting people first. Many designers create beautiful and elegant works with no function or with limited use as the designer hasn't thought or doesn't care about it's use for humans.
The routemaster has sweeping windows that wrap around the bus flooding the inside with light and improving the black spot of the old routemaster, those dingy stairs. Heatherwick has even used heritage fabrics which, although are covering and replacing the old bucket seats, hark back to the original and well loved London bus.
Heatherwick's crowning glory, however, has to be the stunning Olympic cauldron, comprising of petals that merged when lit, it was a triumph of British design. Olympic fans have praised the design for breaking the unwritten IOC rule that bigger is better when Olympic cauldrons are concerned and instead going for beauty and subtlety when designing the cauldron that became the icon of the games. Some even attribute Heatherwick to the success of the games, stating that without his design the public wouldn't have taken to the 2012 brand at all after a string of design nightmares. But who can even remember the negative press when the 2012 logo was unveiled? After commissioning Heatherwick the London 2012 organising committee turned the games around and brought back important elements to the games that run through Heatherwick's work. Unity and humanity.
The V&A are currently running an exhibition 'Heatherwick Studio: Designing The Extraordinary' where you can see his design processes and a scale model of the 2012 Olympic cauldron. The Exhibition runs until the 30th of September and tickets are available from the V&A website.
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