A solo show of work by British designer Thomas Heatherwick opens at the V&AÂ in London this week, featuring prototypes, experiments, material samples and finished works from key projects including UK Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 and his recent redesign of the double decker London bus.
Top: Bleigiessen at the Wellcome Trust, London, photograph by Steve Speller
Above: UK pavilion at the Shanghai Expo 2010, photograph by Iwan Baan
The exhibition is organised in clusters that represent recurring themes in his work, demonstrating the process and inspiration behind projects from the past 20 years.
Above: A New Bus for London
Dezeen interviewed Heatherwick at the press preview this morning - watch him demonstrate the exhibition-guide dispenser inspired by newspaper printing presses here and look out for the full interview on Dezeen soon.
Above: Spun chair
The show opens to the public from 31 May to 30 September.
Above: Extrusions
It coincides with a showcase of British design at the museum called British Design 1948-2012:Â Innovation in the Modern Age.
Above: Rolling Bridge, Paddington Basin, London, photograph by Steve Speller
See all our stories about Thomas Heatherwick »
See all our stories about the V&A musuem »
Above: Teesside Power Station, Stockton-On-Tees, UK
Here are some more details from the V&A:
Heatherwick Studio: Designing the Extraordinary
Sponsored by Ernst & Young
31 May – 30 September 2012
As part of a season of events celebrating British design, the V&A presents the first major solo exhibition exploring the work of one of the most inventive design studios practicing today.
Heatherwick Studio: Designing the Extraordinary reveals the creative processes and spirit of curiosity of Thomas Heatherwick and his studio across two decades of projects, spanning the disciplines of architecture, furniture and product design, to engineering, sculpture and urban planning.
Heatherwick Studio has earned a renowned international profile through projects including the pedestrian Rolling Bridge in Paddington Basin, the glass Bleigiessen installation for the Wellcome Trust and the Teesside biomass-fuelled power station. This exhibition brings together over 150 objects of inspiration and material samples, models, prototypes, full-scale fragments and finished pieces: from an original seed-tipped rod from the UK Pavilion Seed Cathedral at the Shanghai World Expo, to a detail of the new London double-decker bus at full-scale.
Thomas Heatherwick studied 3D design in Manchester followed by an MA at the Royal College of Art in London and in 1994 he established his own studio which is now based in King’s Cross, London. Since the start of his career Heatherwick has worked with an extensive range of design disciplines and has shown a persistence of vision, with ideas and themes recurring in projects years on from their initial conception. His work reveals a fascination for texture, for what materials can do and how far boundaries can be pushed. His creativity and ingenuity have earned Heatherwick numerous design awards including the Prince Philip Designers Prize (2006), the London Design Medal (2010), the RIBA Lubetkin Prize (2010) for the UK Pavilion and in 2004 he became the youngest practitioner to be appointed a Royal Designer for Industry.
Part of the V&A British Design Season
Book online
Tickets £6
Concessions available
Booking fees apply
Join us to share your thoughts, pictures, videos and questions on Facebook and Twitter #Heatherwick