A lesson in synthesis

As one of the GQ’s 50 best dressed British man Thomas Alexander Heatherwick is an English designer born in 17 February 1970 in London, England. Studied three three-dimensional design at Manchester Polytechnic and at the Royal College ofArt where he meets his mentor Terence Conran, who called him The Leonardo da Vinci of our times.

Thomas Heatherwick appointed to many honorary titles which includes the Royal Institute of British Architects, Royal Designer for Industry in 2004, and made Him the youngest to achieve this. Also due his services to design industry, on 2013 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), he is also member of the Royal Society of Arts.

The works of this dignified aristocrat are not distinguished by constructing own systemic plastic skills, but with the ability to solve monumental spatial problems using familiar shaping practices in a bold and unusual way, thus creating compelling and unforgettable images on the boundary between sculpture, design and architecture.

In fact, such a defined limit exists only in our provincial educational system. Taught at various universities, on different programs, as different specialties, sculpture, design and architecture are conceived and practiced as having different structural, functional and plastic targets and at best an acceptable balance is established between them. They call it "Synthesis". In this particular case Monumental arts are simply applied and rarely affect the overall impression of the architectural volume. Everyone should know his place :)

Formshaping is a language. Phrase, grammar, vocabulary. Syntax. Stylistics. View. Knowledge. Perceptions. Invention. Vision in an expressive and shareable form.

The Seed Cathedral is a fine example of an integrated and unified creative vision. UK Pavilion at Shanghai’s Expo 2010 is a box, 15 metres high and 10 metres tall. From every surface protrude silvery hairs, consisting of 60,000 identical rods of clear acrylic, 7.5 metres long, which extend through the walls of the box and lift it into the air. Inside the pavilion, the geometry of the rods forms a space described by a curvaceous undulating surface. There are 250,000 seeds cast into the glassy tips of all the hairs. This work uses formshaping principle known in sculpture from the time of constructivism. With the rapid development in technology since then, it became possible to build large spatial forms that seemingly ignore the principles of rational construction of monumental and functional capacity. I dare say that in its shaping there is no boundary between architecture, sculpture and design.

The first organised back in 1852, fairs are places where different countries display their culture and technology in their own specially built pavilions. In 2010, at the expo held in Shanghai, China, 200 different countries presented their expositions, which make it the largest exhibition ever held. The United Kingdom pavilion, designed by Thomas Alexander Heatherwick, is one of the most memorable buildings, I apologize – plastic art works - of our time.