Hello, my name is Thomas Heatherwick. I have a studio in London that has a particular approach to designing buildings. When I was growing up, I was exposed to making and crafts and materials and invention on a small scale. And I was there looking at the larger scale of buildings and finding that the buildings that were around me and that were being designed and that were there in the publications I was seeing felt soulless and cold. And there on the smaller scale, the scale of an earring or a ceramic pot or a musical instrument, was a materiality and a soulfulness. And this influenced me. The first building I built was 20 years ago. And since, in the last 20 years, I've developed a studio in London. Sorry, this was my mother, by the way, in her bead shop in London. I spent a lot of time counting beads and things like that.
Pozdravljeni, sem Thomas Heatherwick. V našem arhitekturnem studiu v Londonu se poslužujemo posebnega pristopa k načrtovanju zgradb. V mladih letih sem spoznal ročna dela, obrti, materiale in majhne izume. Ko sem opazoval večje zgradbe in odkril, da so zgradbe okrog mene, načrtovane in objavljene v publikacijah, ki sem jih bral, videti brez duše in mrzle. Stvari v manjšem merilu, kot so uhani, keramična posoda ali glasbilo, pa so predstavljale predmetnost in bile polne duše. To je name zelo vplivalo. Načrt za prvo zgradbo sem naredil pred 20 leti. Od takrat, v zadnjih dvajsetih letih, sem razvil arhitekturni studio v Londonu. Mimogrede, to je moja mati v njeni trgovini s koraldami v Londonu. Večkrat sem se zamotil s štetjem korald.
I'm just going to show, for people who don't know my studio's work, a few projects that we've worked on. This is a hospital building. This is a shop for a bag company. This is studios for artists. This is a sculpture made from a million yards of wire and 150,000 glass beads the size of a golf ball. And this is a window display. And this is pair of cooling towers for an electricity substation next to St. Paul's Cathedral in London. And this is a temple in Japan for a Buddhist monk. And this is a cafe by the sea in Britain.
Ljudem, ki ne poznajo dela mojega studia, bi želel pokazati nekaj naših projektov. To je bolnišnična zgradba. To je trgovina podjetja s torbami. To je umetniški studio. To je postavitev iz dobrih 900 km žice in 150.000 steklenih krogel, velikih kot žogica za golf. In to je izložbeno okno. To sta dva stolpa za ohlajanje razdelilne postaje poleg katedrale sv. Pavla v Londonu. To je tempelj na Japonskem za nekega budističnega meniha. To pa je kavarna ob morju v Veliki Britaniji.
And just very quickly, something we've been working on very recently is we were commissioned by the mayor of London to design a new bus that gave the passenger their freedom again. Because the original Routemaster bus that some of you may be familiar with, which had this open platform at the back -- in fact, I think all our Routemasters are here in California now actually. But they aren't in London. And so you're stuck on a bus. And if the bus is going to stop and it's three yards away from the bus stop, you're just a prisoner. But the mayor of London wanted to reintroduce buses with this open platform. So we've been working with Transport for London, and that organization hasn't actually been responsible as a client for a new bus for 50 years. And so we've been very lucky to have a chance to work. The brief is that the bus should use 40 percent less energy. So it's got hybrid drive. And we've been working to try to improve everything from the fabric to the format and structure and aesthetics.
Naj le omenim, da se trenutno ukvarjamo s projektom, za katerega nas je pooblastil londonski župan, in sicer z načrtovanjem novega avtobusa, ki bi potnikom vrnil svobodo gibanja. Izvirni rdeči dvonadstropni avtobusi, ki jih najbrž poznate, z zadnjo odprto dostopno ploščadjo, se namreč sedaj menda trenutno prevažajo po Kaliforniji. A ni jih v Londonu. Tako potniki obtičijo na avtobusu. Če se avtobus namerava ustaviti, a je tri metre oddaljen od postajališča, ste postali ujetnik. Londonski župan pa je hotel ponovno uvesti avtobuse z odprto ploščadjo. Sodelujemo z londonskim prometnim sistemom, ki pa kot organizacija ni bila v vlogi naročnika novega avtobusa že 50 let. Zato smo imeli veliko srečo, da pri tem sodelujemo. Namen je bil, da avtobus porabi 40 odstotkov manj energije. Tako deluje na hibridni pogon. Ukvarjamo pa se z izboljšavo vsega, od blaga do oblike, strukture in videza.
I was going to show four main projects. And this is a project for a bridge. And so we were commissioned to design a bridge that would open. And openings seemed -- everyone loves opening bridges, but it's quite a basic thing. I think we all kind of stand and watch. But the bridges that we saw that opened and closed -- I'm slightly squeamish -- but I once saw a photograph of a footballer who was diving for a ball. And as he was diving, someone had stamped on his knee, and it had broken like this. And then we looked at these kinds of bridges and just couldn't help feeling that it was a beautiful thing that had broken.
Rad bi pokazal štiri glavne projekte. To je projekt za most. Pooblastili so nas za načrtovanje mosta, ki bi se odpiral. Odpiranje mosta je -- ljudem so všeč mostovi, ki se odpirajo, a vseeno gre za precej preprosto stvar. Vsi takrat nekako obstanemo in gledamo. A mostovi, kot jih poznamo, ki se dvigajo in spuščajo, mi vzbujajo pomisleke... Nekoč sem videl sliko nogometaša, ki se je iztegnil za žogo. Med stegovanjem je nekdo pohodil njegovo koleno in ga zlomil tako. Nato smo opazovali take mostove in nisem si mogel kaj, a všeč mi je bilo, da se je zlomilo.
And so this is in Paddington in London. And it's a very boring bridge, as you can see. It's just steel and timber. But instead of what it is, our focus was on the way it worked. (Applause) So we liked the idea that the two farthest bits of it would end up kissing each other. (Applause) We actually had to halve its speed, because everyone was too scared when we first did it. So that's it speeded up.
To je v Paddingtonu v Londonu. Kot vidite, je zelo suhoparen most, zgrajen le iz jekla in lesa. A mi smo se namesto na videz osredotočili na način delovanja. (Aplavz) Navdušila nas je zamisel, da se dva najbolj skrajna konca združita kot pri poljubu. (Aplavz) Morali smo prepoloviti njegovo hitrost, saj so se prvič ljudje preveč prestrašili. To je pospešeno odpiranje.
A project that we've been working on very recently is to design a new biomass power station -- so a power station that uses organic waste material. In the news, the subject of where our future water is going to come from and where our power is going to come from is in all the papers all the time. And we used to be quite proud of the way we generated power. But recently, any annual report of a power company doesn't have a power station on it. It has a child running through a field, or something like that.
Trenutno se ukvarjamo z načrtovanjem nove energetske postaje za predelavo biomase, postaje, ki izkorišča organske odpadke. V novicah lahko stalno beremo, od kje bomo v prihodnosti pridobivali vodo in energijo. V preteklosti smo se precej ponašali z našimi načini pridobivanja energije. Zadnje čase pa letna poročila energetskih podjetij na naslovnicah nimajo energetske postaje, pač pa je pogosto to otrok, ki teče po polju.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
And so when a consortium of engineers approached us and asked us to work with them on this power station, our condition was that we would work with them and that, whatever we did, we were not just going to decorate a normal power station. And instead, we had to learn -- we kind of forced them to teach us. And so we spent time traveling with them and learning about all the different elements, and finding that there were plenty of inefficiencies that weren't being capitalized on. That just taking a field and banging all these things out isn't necessarily the most efficient way that they could work.
Ko se je na nas obrnilo združenje inženirjev z željo, da bi sodelovali pri tej energetski postaji, smo ponudbo sprejeli pod pogojem, da bi z njimi sodelovali in ne le okrasili običajno energetsko postajo. Namesto tega smo jih prisilili, da so nas učili. Tako smo z njimi potovali, se učili o vseh mogočih elementih in videli, da obstaja mnogo neučinkovitosti, ki niso bile izkoriščene. Zgolj nametana zazidava praznega zemljišča ni nujno najučinkovitejši način.
So we looked at how we could compose all those elements -- instead of just litter, create one composition. And what we found -- this area is one of the poorest parts of Britain. It was voted the worst place in Britain to live. And there are 2,000 new homes being built next to this power station. So it felt this has a social dimension. It has a symbolic importance. And we should be proud of where our power is coming from, rather than something we are necessarily ashamed of.
Želeli smo ugotoviti, kako združiti vse dele v celoto, brez videza navlake. Odkrili smo... To območje je eno revnejših delov Velike Britanije. Znano je kot najmanj priljubljen kraj za bivanje. Poleg te energetske postaje pa gradijo 2.000 novih domov. Občutna je bila torej družbena nota, kar ima simboličen pomen. Morali bi biti ponosni na vir naše energije, namesto da se ga sramujemo.
So we were looking at how we could make a power station, that, instead of keeping people out and having a big fence around the outside, could be a place that pulls you in. And it has to be -- I'm trying to get my -- 250 feet high. So it felt that what we could try to do is make a power park and actually bring the whole area in, and using the spare soil that's there on the site, we could make a power station that was silent as well. Because just that soil could make the acoustic difference. And we also found that we could make a more efficient structure and have a cost-effective way of making a structure to do this.
Zanimalo nas je, kako bi ustvarili postajo, ki ljudi ne bi odvračala ali se od družbe zapirala z visoko ograjo, pač pa bi privabljala ljudi. Poleg tega mora biti -- poskušam se spomniti -- visoka slabih 80 metrov. Prišli smo na idejo, da bi ustvarili energetski park in vključili celotno okolico, z odvečno zemljo z gradbišča pa bi ustvarili tiho energetsko postajo. Prav ta zemlja lahko ustvari razliko v akustiki. Želeli smo tudi izboljšati strukturno učinkovitost in najti stroškovno izvedljiv način izvedbe take strukture.
The finished project is meant to be more than just a power station. It has a space where you could have a bar mitzvah at the top. (Laughter) And it's a power park. So people can come and really experience this and also look out all around the area, and use that height that we have to have for its function.
Končni projekt naj bi predstavljal več kot le energetsko postajo. Na vrhu je prostor, kjer lahko praznujete bar micvo. (Smeh) Gre torej za energetski park. Ljudje lahko pridejo in ga spoznavajo, se razgledujejo po okolici in tako izkoristijo višino postaje, ki je potrebna za obratovanje.
In Shanghai, we were invited to build -- well we weren't invited; what am I talking about. We won the competition, and it was painful to get there. (Laughter) So we won the competition to build the U.K. pavilion. And an expo is a totally bonkers thing. There's 250 pavilions. It's the world's biggest ever expo that had ever happened. So there are up to a million people there everyday. And 250 countries all competing. And the British government saying, "You need to be in the top five." And so that became the governmental goal -- is, how do you stand out in this chaos, which is an expo of stimulus? So our sense was we had to do one thing, and only one thing, instead of trying to have everything. And so what we also felt was that whatever we did we couldn't do a cheesy advert for Britain.
V Šanghaj so nas povabili, da zgradimo -- pravzaprav nas niso povabili, kaj pa govorim. Zmagali smo na natečaju, kar res ni bilo lahko. (Smeh) Osvojili smo natečaj za postavitev britanskega pavilijona. Tokratnji Expo je resnično nora stvar. Obsega 250 pavilijonov. Je največji, kar se jih je odvilo. Vsak dan se na njem tre do milijon obiskovalcev. Vseh 250 držav tekmuje med sabo. Britanska vlada pa nam je naročila, da moramo priti med prvih pet. Tako je to postal vladni cilj, a kako izstopati v tej zmešnjavi, v tej razstavi dražljajev? Vedeli smo, da moramo narediti le eno stvar, le eno in ne želeti vključiti vsega. Prav tako smo se zavedali, da v nobenem primeru ne smemo narediti zlajnane reklame za VB.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
But the thing that was true, the expo was about the future of cities, and particularly the Victorians pioneered integrating nature into the cities. And the world's first public park of modern times was in Britain. And the world's first major botanical institution is in London, and they have this extraordinary project where they've been collecting 25 percent of all the world's plant species. So we suddenly realized that there was this thing. And everyone agrees that trees are beautiful, and I've never met anyone who says, "I don't like trees." And the same with flowers. I've never met anyone who says, "I don't like flowers." But we realized that seeds -- there's been this very serious project happening -- but that seeds -- at these major botanical gardens, seeds aren't on show. But you just have to go to a garden center, and they're in little paper packets. But this phenomenal project's been happening. So we realized we had to make a project that would be seeds, some kind of seed cathedral.
Pomembno pa je bilo, da je bila tema Expa prihodnost mest in še posebej viktorijanci so bili med prvimi, ki so v mesta vnesli naravo. Prvi javni park sodobnega časa je bil prav v VB. Prva večja botanična ustanova je v Londonu, kjer izvajajo izjemen projekt zbiranja četrtine vseh svetovnih rastlinskih vrst. Nenadoma smo odkrili nekaj posebnega. Vsi se strinjamo, da so drevesa čudovita. Nisem še slišal, da jih kdo ne bi maral. Enako je z rožami. Ne poznam nikogar, ki ne bi maral rož. A ugotovili smo, da semena -- kljub temu izjemnemu projektu -- v teh večjih botaničnih vrtovih pravzaprav niso razstavljena za javnost. Treba je iti v vrtni center, kjer jih prodajajo v vrečkicah. A hkrati se odvija ta fenomenalen projekt. Spoznali smo, da moramo izvesti projekt s semeni, nekakšno semensko katedralo.
But how could we show these teeny-weeny things? And the film "Jurassic Park" actually really helped us. Because the DNA of the dinosaur that was trapped in the amber gave us some kind of clue that these tiny things could be trapped and be made to seem precious, rather than looking like nuts. So the challenge was, how are we going to bring light and expose these things? We didn't want to make a separate building and have separate content. So we were trying to think, how could we make a whole thing emanate. By the way, we had half the budget of the other Western nations. So that was also in the mix with the site the size of a football pitch. And so there was one particular toy that gave us a clue.
A kako naj pokažemo te drobižke? Zelo nam je pomagal film "Jurski park". DNK dinozavra, ki se je ohranil v jantarju, nam je dal zamisel, da bi lahko te majcene stvari ujeli in jim dali videz dragocenosti in ne zgolj preprostih semen. Ključen izziv je bil, kako jih izpostaviti na svetlobi. Nismo želeli ločiti zgradbe od vsebine. Želeli smo torej ugotoviti, kako bi cela zadeva izžarevala. Mimogrede, naš proračun je bil pol manjši kot pri ostalih zahodnih državah. To je bilo treba upoštevati pri prostoru, velikem kot nogometno igrišče. Zamisel nam je dala posebna igrača.
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(Video) Nov Play-Doh Mop Tops frizerski salon. ♫ Imamo Mop Tops, Play-Doh Mop Tops ♫ ♫ Le zasukaj stol in ustvari Play-Doh pričesko ♫ ♫ To so Mop Tops ♫
Thomas Heatherwick: Okay, you get the idea. So the idea was to take these 66,000 seeds that they agreed to give us, and to take each seed and trap it in this precious optical hair and grow that through this box, very simple box element, and make it a building that could move in the wind. So the whole thing can gently move when the wind blows. And inside, the daylight -- each one is an optic and it brings light into the center. And by night, artificial light in each one emanates and comes out to the outside. And to make the project affordable, we focused our energy. Instead of building a building as big as the football pitch, we focused it on this one element. And the government agreed to do that and not do anything else, and focus our energy on that. And so the rest of the site was a public space. And with a million people there a day, it just felt like offering some public space.
Dobro, razumete, kaj želim povedati. Zamislili smo si torej, da bi vsakega od teh 66.000 semen, ki so nam jih odstopili, posamezno ujeli v ta dragocen optični las, ga potegnili skozi ta kvader, zelo preprosto kvadrasto konstrukcijo in tako ustvarili zgradbo, ki bi se gibala v vetru. Celotna zadeva se ob vetru nežno giba. Znotraj nje pa se dnevna svetloba prenaša preko teh optičnih vlaken, ki jo iz zunanjosti prenašajo v notranjost. Ponoči pa se skoznje izžareva umetna svetloba in odseva navzven. Da bi bil projekt cenovno izvedljiv, smo zbrali našo energijo in se namesto zgradbe, velike kot nogometno igrišče, osredotočili na ta element. Vlada je odobrila ta projekt, brez dodatnih aktivnosti in tako smo se osredotočili na to, ostala površina prizorišča pa je postala javni prostor. Ob milijonu dnevnih obiskovalcev se nam je zamisel o javnem prostoru zdela prava.
We worked with an AstroTurf manufacturer to develop a mini-me version of the seed cathedral, so that, even if you're partially-sighted, that it was kind of crunchy and soft, that piece of landscape that you see there. And then, you know when a pet has an operation and they shave a bit of the skin and get rid of the fur -- in order to get you to go into the seed cathedral, in effect, we've shaved it.
Sodelovali smo s proizvajalcem AstroTurf in razvili pomanjšano različico semenske katedrale, tako so lahko tudi slabovidni zaznali hrapavo, a mehko površino, ki pokriva javni prostor, ki ga vidite. Kot, na primer, ko pošljejo vašega ljubljenčka na operacijo in mu odbrijejo del dlake, da lažje opravijo poseg, tako smo tudi mi za lažji dostop v notranjost dobesedno obrili semensko katedralo.
And inside there's nothing; there's no famous actor's voice; there's no projections; there's no televisions; there's no color changing. There's just silence and a cool temperature. And if a cloud goes past, you can see a cloud on the tips where it's letting the light through. This is the only project that we've done where the finished thing looked more like a rendering than our renderings.
Znotraj pa ni ničesar; nobenih glasov znanega igralca, nobenih projekcij, nobenih televizorjev ali barvnih učinkov. Znotraj je le tišina in prijetno hladna temperatura. Ko oblak zakrije sonce, lahko senco zaznate na konicah vlaken, ki prepuščajo svetlobo. To je naš edini projekt, pri katerem je končni rezultat videti bolj zasnova kot naše zasnove.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
A key thing was how people would interact. I mean, in a way it was the most serious thing you could possible do at the expo. And I just wanted to show you. The British government -- any government is potentially the worst client in the world you could ever possibly want to have. And there was a lot of terror. But there was an underlying support. And so there was a moment when suddenly -- actually, the next thing. This is the head of U.K. Trade and Investment, who was our client, with the Chinese children, using the landscape.
Ključno je bilo vključevanje ljudi. Na nek način je bila to najbolj iskrena stvar, ki jo lahko izvedete na Expu. To bi vam želel pokazati. Britanska vlada oz. katerakoli vlada je lahko najslabša stranka na svetu, ki bi si jo želeli. Zelo nas je skrbelo. A imeli smo resnično podporo. V nekem trenutku je nenadoma -- to boste videli zdaj. To je vodja britanske organizacije za Trgovino in investicije, ki je bila naša stranka, skupaj s kitajskimi otroci na površini prizorišča.
(Video) Children: One, two, three, go.
(Video) Otroci: Ena, dve, tri, zdaj!
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
TH: I'm sorry about my stupid voice there.
Opravičujem se za moj trapast smeh.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
So finally, texture is something. In the projects we've been working on, these slick buildings, where they might be a fancy shape, but the materiality feels the same, is something that we've been trying to research really, and explore alternatives. And the project that we're building in Malaysia is apartment buildings for a property developer. And it's in a piece of land that's this site. And the mayor of Kuala Lumpur said that, if this developer would give something that gave something back to the city, they would give them more gross floor area, buildable. So there was an incentive for the developer to really try to think about what would be better for the city.
Občutek površine je torej pomemben. Pri naših projektih smo ugotovili, da te gladke zgradbe resda imajo imenitno obliko, materiali pa so še vedno enaki, zato smo to področje želeli raziskati in poiskati druge možnosti. Projekt, ki ga uresničujemo v Maleziji, so stanovanjske zgradbe za nepremičninsko podjetje. Območje, na katerem gradi, je ta prostor. Župan Kuala Lumpurja je dejal, da bi v primeru, da investitor nekaj ponudi oz. vrne mestu, ponudili še več zazidljivih parcel. To je bila spodbuda za investitorja, da začne razmišljati o ugodnostih za mesto.
And the conventional thing with apartment buildings in this part of the world is you have your tower, and you squeeze a few trees around the edge, and you see cars parked. It's actually only the first couple of floors that you really experience, and the rest of it is just for postcards. The lowest value is actually the bottom part of a tower like this. So if we could chop that away and give the building a small bottom, we could take that bit and put it at the top where the greater commercial value is for a property developer. And by linking these together, we could have 90 percent of the site as a rainforest, instead of only 10 percent of scrubby trees and bits of road around buildings.
Običajno pri stanovanjskih zgradbah v tem delu sveta je, da so kot stolp z nekaj drevesi, stisnjenih ob vogalu, in parkiranimi avtomobili. Dejansko lahko izkusite le prvih nekaj nadstropij, vse ostalo je za razglednice. Najmanjšo vrednost ima pravzaprav spodnji del take zgradbe. Če bi lahko spodnja nadstropja skrčili in ustvarili zgradbo z ozkim dnom, bi lahko razširili njen zgornji del, ki predstavlja večjo tržno vrednost za investitorja. Ko jih povežemo skupaj, lahko na 90 odstotkih zemljišča ustvarimo deževni gozd namesto zgolj 10 odstodkov oskubljenih dreves in kosov ceste okrog stavb.
(Applause)
(Aplavz)
So we're building these buildings. They're actually identical, so it's quite cost-effective. They're just chopped at different heights. But the key part is trying to give back an extraordinary piece of landscape, rather than engulf it. And that's my final slide.
Gradimo torej take stavbe. Ker je ena enaka drugi, so stroškovno učinkovite. Le odrezane so na različnih višinah. Ključno pa je, da prostoru vrnemo izjemen del pokrajine, namesto da ga odvzamemo. In to je moj zadnji diapozitiv.
Thank you.
Hvala lepa.
(Applause)
(Aplavz)
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplavz)
June Cohen: So thank you. Thank you, Thomas. You're a delight. Since we have an extra minute here, I thought perhaps you could tell us a little bit about these seeds, which maybe came from the shaved bit of the building.
June Cohen: Hvala lepa, Thomas. Bilo je čudovito. Ker imamo še minuto, nam morda lahko poveš kaj več o teh semenih, ki morda prihajajo iz odrezanega dela zgradbe.
TH: These are a few of the tests we did when we were building the structure. So there were 66,000 of these. This optic was 22 feet long. And so the daylight was just coming -- it was caught on the outside of the box and was coming down to illuminate each seed. Waterproofing the building was a bit crazy. Because it's quite hard to waterproof buildings anyway, but if you say you're going to drill 66,000 holes in it -- we had quite a time. There was one person in the contractors who was the right size -- and it wasn't a child -- who could fit between them for the final waterproofing of the building.
TH: To so eni od mnogih poskusov pri gradnji konstrukcije. Imeli smo torej 66.000 takih. Te optične palice so dolge slabih 7 metrov. Sončna svetloba se je zbrala zunaj zgradbe, prodrla skoznjo in osvetlila vsako seme. Narediti zgradbo odporno na vodo je bilo precej noro. To je vedno precej težko, če pa vanjo navrtaš še 66.000 lukenj, je še posebej zanimivo. En izvajalec del je bil prave velikosti -- in ni bil otrok -- da se je zrinil mednje in kot zadnji preveril odpornost zgradbe na vodo.
JC: Thank you, Thomas.
JC: Hvala lepa, Thomas.
(Applause)
(Aplavz)