Thomas Heatherwick

Heatherwick was born in London on 17 February 1970. His maternal great-grandfather was the owner of Jaeger, the leading London fashion firm, and his uncle was the journalist Nicholas Tomalin. After primary school in Wood Green, north London, he attended the private Sevenoaks School in Kent. He also attended the Rudolf Steiner School Kings Langley, in Hertfordshire, which puts an emphasis on gardening, handiwork, and a bespoke form of performance art called eurythmy. He studied three-dimensional design at Manchester Polytechnic and at the Royal College of Art (RCA). In his final year at RCA in 1994, Heatherwick met designer Terence Conran who came to give a talk at the school. Conran became a mentor to Heatherwick after seeing his plan for a gazebo for his degree project. It was made of two high curved stacks of birch plywood, and Conran made its construction possible by inviting Heatherwick to work at his country home.

After graduating from the RCA in 1994, Heatherwick founded Heatherwick Studio. Conran asked Heatherwick to make an interior display for The Conran Shop, and this led to his first public commission after Mary Portas saw the display stand, and commissioned Heatherwick to make a window display for the 1997 London Fashion Week at the Harvey Nichols department store.