When working on a project involving the manufacturing of aluminium components, the studio witnessed an industrial process called extrusion. This is a process involving squeezing heated metal through a shaped hole, known as a die, to produce straight aluminium lengths with a precisely shaped cross-section. Despite the sophistication of this technology, it was liable to produce forms of warped imperfection when the first part of the metal to squeeze through the die snagged and contorted as it struggled to work out what shape it should be. As the process continued, the form straightened out and the contorted end was chopped off and melted down. Considering these mutated sections to be the best part, the studio wondered if it was possible to produce warped lengths of extruded aluminium on a larger scale.

At the same time, it seemed that there was a need for a great many kilometres of new seating, to furnish all the new airports and stations being built around the world. Could the extrusion process be used to create this seating? Instead of furniture that contains numerous materials and components, was it possible to form a seat that is a single component in one go, by squeezing it out like toothpaste, with its legs and back already formed?

For sixteen years, the studio continued to look for a machine capable of realising the idea, until finally learning of a new extrusion machine that had been built in the Far East. Capable of exerting ten thousand tonnes of pressure, it was designed to make componentry for the aerospace industry, although the factory had never used it to its fullest extent and could not guarantee the outcome of the experiment.

With the use of this specialised dye, the studio succeeded in making a series of pieces in which a straight, clean, extruded length is contrasted with its raw, contorted end.

The process of metal spinning is traditionally used to make circular metal objects, such as timpani drums and gas cylinders, by pressing flat sheets of metal against a shaped former while they both rotate. If it was possible to make large drums with spun metal, might it be possible to make a chair with a completely symmetrical rotational form? And would it be comfortable to sit in?

After extensive research and experimentation, Heatherwick Studio produced an ergonomic form that works as a chair, whichever way it is rotated. To achieve this in a single form, the seat had to be capable of serving as a back support and the back support had to make a comfortable seat.

At college, Heatherwick had been taught by a silversmith, skilled in using big sheets of silver to make large goblets and trophies. Working with the gallery, Haunch of Venison, Heatherwick Studio used the traditional craft of large-scale metal spinning to produce a series of highly finished pieces in different metals. The studio also collaborated with the Italian furniture manufacturer, Magis, to develop a version made with a different kind of rotational process, rotation-moulded plastic.

Zips are normally a small part of a garment or fashion accessory, but zipper is manufactured and sold in continuous lengths up to 200m. The question was whether a long length of zipper could be used as the main component of pieces of clothing, objects or accessories.

Following extensive experimentation making objects, dresses and accessories from long pieces of zipper, the project developed into a handbag. Zip Bag is based around a single long length of zipper that when unzipped, doubles the size of the bag – transforming what was previously a polite leather handbag into a larger day-bag and revealing an unexpected spiral of colour. The design required structural engineering and is made to unusually high tolerances, to ensure the bag works effectively.

Zip Bag was developed in collaboration with Longchamp, the French family company that has been manufacturing luxury leather goods since 1948 and whose range includes Le Pliage, a classic folding bag collection. Zip Bag went into production in 2003 and was launched at London’s Design Museum, becoming a bestseller for Longchamp.

The relationship with Longchamp has continued, most significantly with their flagship store, La Maison Unique, which opened in SoHo, New York in 2006.

The process of metal spinning is traditionally used to make circular metal objects, such as timpani drums and gas cylinders, by pressing flat sheets of metal against a shaped former while they both rotate. If it was possible to make large drums with spun metal, might it be possible to make a chair with a completely symmetrical rotational form? And would it be comfortable to sit in?

After extensive research and experimentation, Heatherwick Studio produced an ergonomic form that works as a chair, whichever way it is rotated. To achieve this in a single form, the seat had to be capable of serving as a back support and the back support had to make a comfortable seat.

At college, Heatherwick had been taught by a silversmith, skilled in using big sheets of silver to make large goblets and trophies. Working with the gallery, Haunch of Venison, Heatherwick Studio used the traditional craft of large-scale metal spinning to produce a series of highly finished pieces in different metals. The studio also collaborated with the Italian furniture manufacturer, Magis, to develop a version made with a different kind of rotational process, rotation-moulded plastic.

Buy Spun here

The Italian furniture company Magis asked the studio to design an expanding table. Instead of having wings or other mechanisms, it would divide into two tables, which could be used separately, placed side by side to make a big table or put end to end to make a long one.

Heatherwick Studio decided to make a table with a secret. It would look like a completely normal table when the two parts were combined but come as a surprise when it separates into two.

Piggyback consists of two tables that sit tightly on top of each other. The legs of the upper table pass through holes in the surface of the lower one and slot into the legs of the lower one. The tops of the combining tables are the same size, but their edges have slightly different profiles, to give you a finger-hold to lift them by. This also allows their tops to fit snugly against each other when the tables stand side by side.

Buy Piggyback here

When he was a student, Heatherwick spent time experimentally carving wood on a machine tool called a bobbin sander. Using the rigorous geometry of straight lines, this tool is able to create forms with twisted surfaces. Four of these twisted pieces were combined, forming a cabinet with schizophrenic doors: when they are opened halfway, the bottoms of the doors look as if they are nearly open, while the tops still look almost closed.

Heatherwick made the first and original oak cabinet by hand, and the complex piece is now produced and marketed by Benchmark.

Buy Twisted Cabinet here

Wondering if it was possible to take just a single plank and make a whole piece of furniture, the studio experimented with folding long, plank-shaped pieces of paper. By folding the paper at slight angles, the studio found that it could make the plank’s two ends go past each other instead of colliding and that this produced a spiral form with a curious rotational symmetry. The result is an ordinary plank that lies flat on the floor or leans against the wall. But it has a secret. It can, at any moment, be folded up to make a side table or seat.

The complexity of the piece is in the way that it hinges, with joints that are almost invisible when the plank is opened out, which take a surprisingly high degree of precision craftsmanship to manufacture. The studio made the first two versions of Plank by hand and the piece is now produced and marketed by Benchmark.

Buy Plank here

The Science Museum in London commissioned the studio to design a Materials House, an exhibit to show “everything that anything can be made of” for the Challenge of Materials gallery.

Instead of prioritising any one material to make the House from, and then exhibiting small samples of all the other materials within it, the studio chose to make the House itself from all of the materials.

Six metre high pieces of each material are bonded together into a single element of many strata, weighing approximately four tonnes. The edge of every layer is visible around the object, and each material shows its surface at one point as a protruding piece. The geometric pattern becomes increasingly complex as the layers accumulate.

The finished object is an assembly of 213 materials, each material needing its own cutting and bonding technique, all together in over 2000 individually shaped pieces sourced from more than eighty suppliers and sponsors.

The Materials House was completed in 1999 and has remained a centrepiece of the gallery.