Thomas Heatherwick Quotes & Sayings

“Clearly I've got an ego.”

“I don't feel I'm trying to make art. I'm trying to make interesting things. People can relate to that.”

“I have a strong sense that every project is an invention, which is not a word I hear being used in architecture courses.”

“I am finally getting the chance to build large structures and break preconceptions that my designs are just sculptures for people to be in. But my work always comes down to the human scale.”

“As a teenager, my father took me to the shows at the Architectural Association and to places like Milton Keynes back when it was first being built. But I couldn't find anything for me. There seemed to be despair at the possibility of the built environment possessing any imagination in the real world.”

“I'm wary of the word 'inventing,' because in the British psyche the word 'inventor' is immediately linked with 'mad'. For me, inventing is problem-solving.”

“An interest in ideas is a sign of human life. People are fascinated by what the future is going to be - and the future is going to be an accumulation of ideas.”

“At the root of everything I do is a fascination with ideas - what ideas are for, what jobs they do.”

“One great building does not make a great city.”

“To make architecture with any real value is a massive challenge.”