Humanise: A Makers Guide to Building Our World

(Paperback)

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In this manifesto for change, one of the world's preeminent designers explores how buildings and cities around the world lost their soul - and what we can do about it 'Humanise is a masterwork. It's quietly furious, impassioned, rigorous and forensic in all the right doses. It leaves me very hopeful indeed about how things could go from here' ALAIN DE BOTTON In this manifesto for change, one of the world's pre-eminent designers explores how buildings and cities around the world lost their soul - and what we can do about it. Thomas Heatherwick shows how design has a profound effect on our mental and physical health, the climate, as well as the peace and cohesion of societies. He shows how a flawed idea of utility and 'efficiency' has engulfed our towns and cities and hardened into a form of bland minimalism. But it doesn't have to be this way- there are other ways to build - with the power to lift our spirits, engage and connect us. Heatherwick draws on his own work, the ideas of other experts in the field, and recent advances in neuroscience and cognitive psychology to offer both a case against the inhumanity of modernist design and a rallying cry to everyone to imagine the world anew. Looking through his eyes, we take in places around the world, old and new, famous and obscure, that can sap the life out of us - or nourish our senses and our psyche. Humanise is a tautly argued provocation and an urgent call-to-arms to make the world around us a far better place for everyone to live. 'This book is a super accessible guide as to why we shouldn't put up with soulless buildings and how we might change that' GRAYSON PERRY

Reviews

Humanise is a masterwork. It's quietly furious, impassioned, rigorous and forensic in all the right doses. It leaves me very hopeful indeed about how things could go from here. The Age of Boring might just have ended right now -- Alain de Botton
Thomas Heatherwick echoes many things I find myself saying as I travel round the country. How the hell did that monstrosity get built Why is this place so depressing Why is so much of the built environment so boring This book will wind up quite a few architects, planners and developers who labour under the delusion that they are the adults in the room. Good. These people need to develop some compassion for the people who have to live with their joyless, bland, unlovable creations. This book is a super accessible guide as to why we shouldn't put up with soulless buildings and how we might change that -- Grayson Perry
Thomas Heatherwick brings a velvet sledgehammer to the way we think about buildings and how they change our lives. In simple, elegant words, he demands that we put people first. Not developers, politicians or architects. I want to live in the kind of city Heatherwick imagines! Vive la revolution! -- Simon Sinek, Optimist and New York Times-bestselling author of Start with Why and The Infinite Game
The climate crisis, a post-pandemic era and war. All these issues that the world is facing require unprecedented approaches in art, architecture and design. Humanise transcends all borders, cultures and fields of expertise. This book maintains an exquisite balance between quantitative evidence, architectural history, ideals and reality. It urges all of us on this planet to celebrate life -- Mami Kataoka, Director of the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Inspiring, enlightening and provocative, Humanise arms us with a new way of seeing our built environment, and makes explicit what's at stake if we blindly accept the status quo -- Noreena Hertz, author of The Lonely Century: A Call to Reconnect
Thomas Heatherwick's humanity centred imagination is brought to life through his buildings and designs. He challenges us all to see the world differently, in harmony with nature, for the better. Humanise is a look behind the scenes and into the mind of his creative genius -- Tony Fadell,NYT bestselling author ofBuild, iPod inventor, Nest founder
Puckish crafter-in-chief of British Dreams * Daily Telegraph *
A world-renowned designer * Wall Street Journal *
The Leonardo da Vinci of our times -- Terence Conran
Probably the most creative person in the world -- Stephen Ross

Author Bio

Thomas Heatherwick is one of the world's most prolific designers, whose varied work over two decades is characterised by its originality, inventiveness and humanity. Defying conventional classifications, Heatherwick founded his studio in 1994 to bring together architecture, urban planning, product design and interiors into a single creative workspace. Led by human experience rather than any fixed dogma, the studio creates emotionally compelling places and objects with the smallest possible carbon footprint. From their base in London, Heatherwick's team is currently working on over thirty projects in ten countries, including Toranomon-Azabudai, a six-hectare mixed-use development in the centre of Tokyo, the new headquarters for Google in London and Airo, an electric car that cleans the air as it drives. The studio has also recently completed Bay View, Google's first ground-up campus and Little Island, a park and performance space on the Hudson River in New York as well as the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town; and Coal Drops Yard, a major new retail district in King's Cross, London.