Thomas Heatherwick: Making is the first comprehensive monograph on one of the world’s most innovative designers. Only two decades into his career, Briton Thomas Heatherwick has been heralded as one of the most original creative talents in years. His retrospective solo exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum runs from May 31 – September 30 this year. The winner of countless design awards, and the youngest practitioner to be appointed a Royal Designer for Industry, Heatherwick has a unique eye for architecture and design, blending organic, natural forms and materials with modern geometry and a sense of whimsy.

His project range from the small – a shop window, sculptural chairs forged from world’s largest aluminum extruder, a design for a Longchamp handbag – to the larger than life in both size and concept – a bridge that rolls open and closed; the awards winning UK pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo, an exuberant see bank, ‘hairly’ with fiber-optic lights; or the Cauldron which will hold the Olympic Flame in 2012.

This volume presents a comprehensive overview covering the studio’s entire history. Over 140 projects are represented, each fully illustrated with images selected from Heatherwick’s personal and studio archives, many published for the first time. Each of the projects is accompanied by commentary writeen by Heatherwick himself. These insights offer an unprecedented, in-depth and behind-the-scenes perspective, and reveal the creative, design, and manufacturing processes behind Thomas Heaterwick’s genius.

+ Information

Hardcover: 600 pages
Publisher: The Monacelli Press (June 12, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1580933343
ISBN-13: 978-1580933346
Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 2.2 x 9.9 inches

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Austria-based architectural firm x architekten recently has completed PARKPRAXIS, which is a country doctor's practice with in-house pharmacy located in Austria.

Task

Dr. Fehrmann decided to build her new practice in the centre of the lower Austrian community of Kasten. The community's centre consists of buildings which surround a green park on three sides. On its fourth side, the park opens up towards agricultural fields and meadows. The premises lie on the edge of the park where its green spaces turn into agriculture. Keeping the valuable urban quality of the continuous green space demands a certain concept in which the building is not to be seen as such, so as not to disturb the geographical connection between the two green spaces.

Concept

The overlapping of the practices' orthogonal, rational room layout with the romantic and free arrangement of the old tree population on the floor plan leads to a geographical penetration between trees and building. The circular tree discs form indentations in the outer shell and round courtyards inside the building. Mirror façades create an additional interconnection between building and park. The park visually doubles in size with its mirror image. The duality between building and nature disappears; the building loses its independent presence and coalesces with its surroundings. This leads to an extension and new interpretation of the green space while at the same time the service infrastructure becomes denser and positively enlivens the community's centre.

Implementation

The outer façade of the solid single-storey building consists of a curtain wall made of synthetic aluminium composite panels with a reflective stainless steel surface. The building is entered via a circular indentation on the corner. Via the foyer, reception and waiting room, one reaches the circular inner development which runs around the larger courtyard. All of the practice's rooms lead to the completely glazed gallery with its views and exits to the courtyard. From there, two smaller circular rooms ("subcircle distributors") develop further rooms. Each one is exposed according to the concept of overlapping rectangular and round forms via circular shapes.

A shady plane tree with three trunks was planted in the big inner courtyard; it being the tree under which Hippocrates had taught his pupils the art of medicine. A small European black pine was planted in the circular concrete entrance area with its swirl finish. The pine's trunk metaphorically forms the stick around which the Aesculapian snake wiggles, the symbol of human medicine. The remaining tree discs with their gravel surface contrast with the surrounding greenness. Pyramid shaped hornbeams were planted in the two smaller circles. An umbrella bamboo hedge was planted to be used as a shield around the big circle in front of the two consulting rooms and the big south-facing circle includes an existing fruit tree as part of the external design.

+ Project facts

PARKPRAXIS
Newly built country doctor's practice with in-house pharmacy

Design: x architekten
Location: Kasten bei Böheimkirchen, Lower Austria
Client: Dr. Regina Fehrmann

Planning data: Constructional data:
Start of planning: October 2010
Floor space: 224 m2
Start of construction: June 2011
Premises: 500 m²
Handing over: January 2012
Built-up area: 252 m²
Construction: masonry mixture
Cubature: 1.059 m³

+ About x architekten

x architekten is a group of committed architects who develop conceptual positions on contemporary architecture through project-related work.

As a mathematical variable, x stands for openness. x demands the plural: the team with its flat hierarchy replaces the professional profile of the architect as lone fighter. The dynamics of a permanent work process oscillating between creativity and (self-) criticism permit the emergence of a quality standard above the capacities of each single member.

The activities of x architekten comprise the full range from housing and office construction, buildings for industry and commerce, shopping and entertainment projects to design and urbanism.

+ All images and drawings courtesy x architekten