Just walking into Making House, the building near London’s King’s Cross that has housed Heatherwick Studio since 2023, offers insight into the studio’s newly completed project: a 115,000 sq m retail development in Xi’an, the storied industrial metropolis of 12 million in central China. It also tells you much about the philosophy of 54-year-old founder Thomas Heatherwick.
‘[The studio’s approach] is a human-centred approach,' says Heatherwick as he welcomes me to the cavernous yet cosy space that allows glimpses into his universe and his take on compositional storytelling; there are models of projects large and small, as well as a full-size recreation of the rear of his 2011-designed Routemaster double-decker bus.
