From TED.com: "Thomas Heatherwick is the founder of Heatherwick Studio, an architecture and design firm that, among other projects, designed the astonishing "Seed Cathedral" for the UK Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010."
Note: Live blog from Heatherwick's TED talk is not an official transcript, but a compilation of quotes (indicated where relevant with quotation marks) and paraphrased statements. Find more updates from TED here.
On what influences his vision:I have a studio in London that has a particular approach to designing buildings. This approach came about because when I was gowing up I was exposed to making and craft and materials and invention on a small scale and I was there looking at the larger scale of buildings and finding that buildings that were around me and being designed and were there in the publications I was seeing felt soulless and cold.
There on a smaller scale, on the scale of earrings or a ceramic pot or a musical instrument was a...soulfulness. This influenced me.
On his "Rolling Bridge" in London:We liked that the two furthest bits would end up "kissing" each other.
On the UK pavilion his studio designed for the Shanghai Expo:This is the only project that we've done where finished thing looked more like a rendering than our renderings.
On designing the UK pavilion:There was a lot of terror, but also a lot of underlying support.