Where would you be without the digital revolution?
Good question. I am certain that my practice would be a much smaller firm. We have worked for a good number of organizations that would not exist without this revolution, such as Google, for example (for which Heatherwick is completing projects in California and London, in collaboration with the Danish firm BIG, ed).
On a deeper level, the digital revolution has diminished the importance of the physical world. Suddenly, for example, it seemed we no longer needed books, but now they are back in style, made better and sold in bigger numbers than ever before: people actually love physical things, design, quality, odor.
How did the roof of the Coal Drops Yard come to be?
It came from the fact that we had these two buildings from about 170 years ago, built to store 8 million tons of coal, not for people. If you design a new street for shopping in the place, certain human dynamics are created, like those found at their extremes in the shopping malls that exist all over the world. We had this pair of strange buildings, too far apart to be visually interesting or for a conventional type of use. So we had to intervene, to help people to gather there. What I found interesting was the fact that there is no ‘core.’ If I said “let’s meet at the Coal Drops,” where would we meet?