From Olympic cauldron to stairway maze: Boundary-pushing architect Thomas Heatherwick on 'building soulfulness' in space

British architect and designer Thomas Heatherwick poses at Culture Station Seoul 284, June 28, where his exhibition, "Heatherwick Studio: Building Soulfulness," is held. Courtesy of Suum Project

Heatherwick Studio's 'Soundscape' is one of seven final candidates competing to redesign Nodeul Island on Han River

By Park Han-sol

A honeycomb-like maze of staircases in New York City winds up 46 meters into the air, bringing to life a monumental version of "a stairway to nowhere." A pavilion building in Shanghai is enveloped in tens of thousands of thin acrylic rods swaying in the wind ― much like a porcupine's prickly quills. A grain silo in Cape Town is turned into the continent's first contemporary African art museum, fitted with an atrium in the shape of a gigantic corn seed as a visual reminder of its past.

The boundary-pushing British architect and designer Thomas Heatherwick is the mastermind behind these ingenious designs, which often come with hefty price tags.

A physical model and renderings for Heatherwick Studio's "Vessel," a honeycomb-like maze of staircases in New York City's Hudson Yards that winds up 46 meters into the air / Korea Times photo by Park Han-sol

And in Seoul, the 53-year-old maverick may become the one tasked with transforming Nodeul Island, a man-made island nestled on the Han River, into a major cultural landmark. The proposal submitted by his team at Heatherwick Studio is one of the seven final candidates currently being reviewed by the Seoul Metropolitan Government in a bid to redesign the islet.

His studio's "Soundscape" reimagines Nodeul Island as a 6,000-square-meter platform to celebrate Korean music, from classical to K-pop. The space, the design of which is inspired by the city's undulating mountainous terrain, will be decked out with recording studios, concert venues, a waterfront amphitheater, a K-pop experience center and an anechoic chamber, among others.

"Seoul has a huge hidden resource that you're not using enough of yet," the architect said of the Han River during a recent press preview held to mark the opening of the exhibition, "Heatherwick Studio: Building Soulfulness," at Culture Station Seoul 284, a cultural complex that used to be the main train station of the capital.

Installation view of a model for "Soundscape," which is part of Heatherwick Studio's proposal that reimagines Nodeul Island on the Han River as a 6,000-square-meter music space / Courtesy of Suum Project

Although the vast river naturally exerts a major presence in the metropolis, there seems to be "little life to it," he continued.

And in terms of the music scene in Seoul, despite the fact that there are a number of institutions and organizations dedicated to K-pop, classical music and other genres, he observed that "there is nowhere where you can go and feel it visibly."

Hence, "Soundscape" focuses on creating a "space that has not only nature but also culture, showing back what's already in the city like a mirror," Heatherwick noted. "Most cities don't have that opportunity to create a special space right in the middle of them … I think Nodeul Island can be a place you can escape to."

A multi-use complex, "1000 Trees," designed by Heatherwick Studio in Shanghai, China / Korea Times photo by Park Han-sol

"Building Soulfulness," re-organized from the original Mori Art Museum show in Tokyo, spotlights 30 major projects undertaken by Heatherwick Studio over the last three decades. The additional two entries that are newly introduced in the Seoul exhibit are "Soundscape" for Nodeul Island and "The Core," an art museum in development in Gangwon Province.

On view are the studio's batch of unorthodox, adventurous and for some, downright confounding projects that never fail to catch the visitors' eye.

For the 2012 London Olympics, his team designed 204 flaming copper petals, each engraved with the name of participating countries and regions, that finally came together to form a single striking cauldron during the opening ceremony.

A model for the award-winning U.K. Pavilion, nicknamed the "Seed Cathedral," designed by Heatherwick Studio for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo / Yonhap

Another well-known commission is the U.K. Pavilion built for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. With just half the budget of most other Western nations' design teams, Heatherwick decided to cover the structure with some 60,000 slender acrylic rods, containing 250,000 plant seeds at their ends. The inspiration came from the Millennium Seed Bank, the world's largest underground wild plant conservation program, at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

The result, nicknamed the "Seed Cathedral," attracted 8 million visitors with its unusual porcupine-like form and eventually earned the gold award for best pavilion design.

Heatherwick Studio's "Little Island" has transformed an old pier on Manhattan's southwest riverside in New York City into a mini concrete islet with a public park and an outdoor theater. Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio, Suum Project

Others include a tropical opera house in development in China's Hainan, the curvy shape of which takes cues from the surrounding volcanic landscape and the movements of Hainanese Opera; "Vessel" in New York City's Hudson Yards, a public centerpiece whose imposing labyrinth of stairways allow visitors "not just to stand back and look, but use their bodies to become involved;" and "Little Island," which transformed an old pier on Manhattan's southwest riverside into a mini concrete islet with a public park and an outdoor theater.

But whether his designs are brought to life in New York, London, Seoul, Shanghai or Cape Town, Heatherwick emphasized that the common thread running through all these projects is their focus on reviving the architecture's ability to elicit emotions within people.

Bombay Sapphire Distillery designed by Heatherwick Studio in Hampshire, England / Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio, Suum Project

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), designed by Heatherwick Studio in Cape Town, South Africa, is fitted with an atrium in the shape of a gigantic corn seed as a visual reminder of its past. Courtesy of Heatherwick Studio, Suum Project

"When you're creating places, the head matters, the heart matters and also the hands matter. But it feels like in the world around us and in the way that building designers are being taught, it's less (concerned) about the hands and craft ― and even less about emotion ― and more about the head," the architect remarked.

Thus, his studio's projects are part of the attempt to arouse a spectrum of emotions in the audience by encouraging social interaction through "the touch factor."

"In most new buildings, there's nothing to touch; you just walk past them," he noted. "In our projects, we're always thinking: what's the big idea? But also, where's the love? Where's the touch?"

"Building Soulfulness" runs through Sept. 6 at Culture Station Seoul 284.