Thomas Heatherwick Thinks Nearly All New Buildings Are Boring

A daily mix of stories about cities, city life, and our always evolving neighborhoods and skylines. [Curbed]( Monday, October 23 street view [Thomas Heatherwick Thinks Nearly All New Buildings Are Boring]( A critique of his critique. Photo-Illustration: Curbed; Curbed; Photos: Steve Lovegrove/Shutterstock, Getty Images, Courtesy of Heatherwick Studios What do you expect to see when the wrapping comes off a construction site, revealing a new apartment building, hospital, strip mall, or subdivision? Thomas Heatherwick, the designer of flamboyant showpieces like[Little Island]( and Google’s tented [Bay View campus]( in California, watches these unveilings like a boy opening a present he already knows will be socks. In his view, nearly all contemporary architecture is worse than bad or clumsy or oversize or energy-sucking. It is unforgivably boring. Heatherwick has channeled that indignation into Humanize, a fat, lavishly illustrated screed against tedious architecture. Blah-ness is not a default setting, he says. Ever since the first megaloceros hunters painted the walls of their caves, people have lived and worked in ornamented structures, complex even in their simplicity. Not until the early-20th-century embrace of concrete, mass production, and modernism did humans fully explore the realm of boringness. [Continue reading »]( Want more on city life, real estate, and design? [Subscribe now]( to save over 60% on unlimited access to Curbed and everything New York. [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( The Latest [All the City People on Our “Inside Power” List From a co-op whisperer to the longtime ruler of Manhattan parks.]( By The Editors [A Hotel des Arts Duplex Designed Around a Gilded Mural It has 18-foot ceilings.]( By Adriane Quinlan [Matt Drudge Lists Very Beige Miami Compound for $2.9 Million The secluded property promises buyers “FOREVER PRIVACY.”]( By Clio Chang [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Read More From Curbed]( Introducing The City Desk, a weekly newsletter about New York. [Sign up to get it every Thursday](. [GET THE NEWSLETTER]( [logo]( [facebook logo]( [instagram logo]( [twitter logo]( [unsubscribe]( | [privacy notice]( | [update preferences]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Was this email forwarded to you? [Sign up now]( to get this newsletter in your inbox. [View this email in your browser.]( You received this email because you have a subscription to New York. Reach the right online audience with us For advertising information on email newsletters, please contact AdOps@nymag.com Vox Media, LLC 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, 12th Floor Washington, DC 20036 Copyright © 2023, All rights reserved