In January 2010, Heatherwick Studio joined the team leading the design of a New Bus for London. The project marks the first time in more than 50 years that TFL has commissioned and overseen the development of a bus built specifically for the capital.

Working alongside specialist bus manufacturer, Wrightbus, the external design has been developed to reflect the functional requirements of the vehicle. A long asymmetric front window provides the driver with clear kerbside views, while a wrapped glazing panel reflects passenger circulation – bringing more daylight into the bus and offering views out over London.

By incorporating an open platform at its rear, the bus reinstates one of the much-loved features of the 1950s Routemaster which offered a ‘hop-on hop-off’ service. The new design will also have three doors and two staircases, making it quicker and easier for passengers to board.

In engineering terms, the New Bus for London will be 15 per cent more fuel efficient than the existing hybrid buses and 40 per cent more efficient than conventional diesel double-deckers.

Thomas Heatherwick said: “It has been 50 years since a bus was last designed and commissioned specifically for London. This has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a team to look again at the opportunities for a new open-platform bus. It has been an honour to be asked by London’s transport authority to take an integrated approach and design everything that you see and experience from the outside down to the tiniest details of the interior.”

Designs for the new bus were originally unveiled in May 2010 and a prototype, developed and manufactured by Wrightbus, was launched in the capital in December 2011 by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. The first bus entered public service in February 2012 and a further seven buses are due to enter service by the summer.

A seat usually consists of many parts and involves complex manufacturing and assembly processes. For some time the studio has been researching the possibilities of simplifying the elements of a seat into only one component made from one material; a single piece of aluminium without any fixtures or fittings. The studio spent eighteen years trying to realise this idea before a facility was located capable of bringing the idea to reality.

A large press capable of exerting up to ten thousand tons of pressure creates the extruded sections by squeezing aluminium through its die (the opening that forms the shape of the profile to be created). Usually the aluminium extrusion process is used to make smaller section components for façade systems, train carriages, automotive parts and so on. Just as when a tube of toothpaste is squeezed, the first and last part come out misshapen, so too with the extrusion process the first and last lengths have unusual and unexpected forms which are conventionally discarded; for these pieces the forms are allowed to exist and are enjoyed for their brutal, sculptural qualities.

Extrusions constituted a show held at Haunch of Venison in October 2009. Seven experimental pieces were shown which comprise the first works that will be derived from fifteen billets of aluminium, to total no more than 200 metres of extrusion, after which the die will be rendered unusable. Each Extrusion will be cut, manipulated and finished under the studio’s direction, and individually signed and numbered by Thomas Heatherwick.

Further developments using large scale extrusions are progressing.

Spun came out of research into the geometric simplification of a familiar object type. Could a completely rotationally symmetrical form make a comfortable chair?

Developed through full size test pieces an ergonomic was established where seat, back and arms were all the same profile. The result is not immediately apparent as a chair and when upright looks more like a sculptural vessel. However, when lent on its side it forms a comfortable and functional chair that the sitter can rock from side to side in, or even spin round in a complete circle.

In October 2009 the studio produced a series of pieces using the craft of large scale metal spinning, traditionally used to make objects such as Timpani drums. The chairs are handmade by pressing sheets of metal against a rotating cast iron form using a paddle. Each chair is assembled from six metal spinnings, welded together and polished to produce a single unified form with a leather trim inlaid into the weight bearing rim.

A limited edition of metal Spun chairs is available through Haunch of Venison.

The studio was commissioned to design a pedestrian bridge to span an inlet of the Grand Union Canal at Paddington Basin, London, and provide an access route for workers and residents. Crucially, the bridge needed to open to allow access for the boat moored in the inlet.

The aim was to make the movement the extraordinary aspect of the bridge. A common approach to designing opening bridges is to have a single rigid element that fractures and lifts out of the way. Rolling Bridge opens by slowly and smoothly curling until it transforms from a conventional, straight bridge, into a circular sculpture which sits on the bank of the canal.

The structure opens using a series of hydraulic rams integrated into the balustrade. As it curls, each of its eight segments simultaneously lifts, causing it to roll until the two ends touch and form a circle. The bridge can be stopped at any point along its journey.

The whole structure was constructed at Littlehampton Welding on the Sussex coast and then floated up the Grand Union Canal, before being lifted into position and attached to the hydraulic system which powers its movement.

The Rolling Bridge won a number of awards including a Structural Steel Award, and an Emerging Architecture Award. It opens every Friday at midday.

NEWS: UK Pavilion wins 2010 RIBA Lubetkin Prize In September 2007, Heatherwick Studio led the winning team in the competition to design the UK Pavilion for the Shanghai 2010 Expo. The event is the largest Expo ever with two hundred countries taking part and over 70 million visitors expected. The theme of the Expo is “Better City, Better Life” and a key client objective is for the UK Pavilion to be one of the five most popular attractions. The studio’s design has three main aims: the first is to be a pavilion whose architecture is a direct manifestation of the content it exhibits; the second is to provide significant public open space in which visitors can relax; the third is to find a simple idea that is strong enough to stand out amidst the busy-ness of the hundreds of competing pavilions. These aims are captured in two interlinked and experiential elements based around the subject of nature and cities – the Seed Cathedral, and a multi-layered landscape treatment of the 6,000sqm site. The Seed Cathedral is a platform to show the work of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and their Millennium Seedbank. In the circulation zone under the landscape that surrounds the Seed Cathedral a series of installations explore in more detail the particularity of nature and UK cities. The Seed Cathedral is a 20-metre high building, constructed from 60,000 transparent 7.5-metre long optical strands, each of which has embedded within its tip a seed. The interior is silent and illuminated only by the daylight that has filtered past each seed through each optical hair. The UK Pavilion has consistently been ranked by visitors as one of the most popular pavilions with 50,000 people visiting each day.

The studio was commissioned by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea – known for their commitment to improving the public realm – to design kiosks for selling newspapers. The use of the internet as a source of daily news and the rise of supermarkets has had a negative impact on street vendors. The Royal Borough not only wanted to improve the physical public realm, but also recognised the need to protect this important aspect of city life.

The existing box-like newspaper stands, with flat surfaces and roller shutters, not only attract vandalism, but are also inanimate and unattractive when closed up at night.

To address these problems Paperhouse has a distinctive profile derived from a more ergonomic stepped, magazine shelving arrangement. Instead of roller shutters it opens by rotating the front sections around the main body, ready for immediate use.

Manufactured in London, the frame is steel, lined with wood on the inside and patinated brass on the exterior – materials which have warmth and resilience. Four kiosks have been made, with the first two in place at Sloane Square and Earls Court.

Occupying a central London site next to London Bridge Station, the approaches to Guy’s Hospital were confused and congested resulting in the main entrance being hard to find. A range of problems were identified: Great Maze Pond Road being used as a cut-through for cars; narrow pavements with high volumes of pedestrians; no designated drop-offs for patients or visitors; no secure cycle storage; the unsightly boiler house adjacent to the main entrance suffering from decay; the charity shop for the Friends of Guy’s in a state of poor repair.

The scheme, commissioned in 2005 and completed in 2007, captured a scope of works to address these issues for the benefit of patients, visitors and staff. Much of the scheme consists of functional, pragmatic moves, which create space for a focal point, in this instance provided by Boiler Suit – a bespoke tiled cladding system wrapping around the boiler house.

Boiler Suit is fabricated from high grade stainless steel frames, with braid woven through as the “warp”. The 108 tiles are geometrically identical, with 17 variants required to accommodate specific junctions. The tiles are a secondary façade system that is demountable and allows the machinery to vent through, whilst framed reveals shade the large windows on the south façade to reduce solar gain.

In 2007, the project won the Building Better Healthcare Award for Public Space, and the FX Magazine, Judge’s Special Award.