Thomas's 'awe-inspiring' designs

AN MMU graduate is flying the flag for British architecture.

Thomas Heatherwick’s ‘Seed Cathedral’ in Shanghai has won the prestigious international Lubetkin Prize awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The 39-year-old, hailed by Sir Terence Conran as “the new Leonardo” for his ingenious fusion of art and engineering, was made an Honorary Doctor of Arts in July 2007 and is a graduate of MMU’s acclaimed Three-Dimensional Design degree.

London-born Heatherwick’s creations are brave and often awe-inspiring like the somersaulting Rolling Bridge in Paddington Basin, and the “floating” staircase at the Longchamp’s store in New York City.

His latest creation built for the World Expo in Shanghai is a six-storey cube-like structure pierced by 60,000 transparent acrylic rods that each contain a seed.

Outstanding undergraduate

As an undergraduate at MMU in the nineties, Thomas was producing impressive designs and showing commercial acumen, raising £35,000 in sponsorship money to build a pavilion in a Sussex park, and got his big break shortly after graduation when Terence Conran commissioned Thomas to build a gazebo for his back garden.

Professor David Crow, Dean of MMU Faculty of Art and Design, said: “Thomas was outstanding as an undergraduate and has pursued a brilliant career.”

He founded the Heatherwick Studio in 1994 with the aim of bringing “architecture, design and sculpture together within a single practice”.