It’s time to humanise our buildings and stop designing the same old places - Ric Blenkharn
Here we are at the start of another year, another year of meeting those challenges put before us in the design and construction industry.
A world increasingly full of complexity and legislation. A world making it very difficult to stray from the bland and unoriginal. A world where the computer increasingly says ‘no’.
It has therefore been refreshing over the past few weeks to have read the book ‘Humanise’ by Thomas Heatherwick. Heatherwick who you may recall designed the wonderful Olympic Flame, the London scheme at Coal Drops Yard, and, nearer to home, Maggie’s Yorkshire Cancer Care Center in Leeds - a scheme deemed by Time Out “as one of the 24 most beautiful buildings in the world.”
In his book, Heatherwick charts the joy of experiencing such buildings as Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and goes on the discuss the numerous ‘bland and boring’ buildings which blighted much of the 20th Century.
The book is not a call for historical pastiche, but one to create buildings expressing warmth and humanity. Buildings that give intrigue to the passer by as well as the building user. We all too often see pattern book architecture in mass housing, where developers exploit their range of standard house types rather than create places with a real sense of belonging and identity.
There are clearly exceptions where developments such as Kelham Island in Sheffield, by Citu, have created a unique sense of place- a place like no other in the area, with its roots in the industrial heritage of the site. At a larger scale, we have seen city centres being overwhelmed by anonymous high-rise blocks.
Heatherwick describes his Humanise Rule as a building which should be able to hold your attention for the time it takes to pass by it. In order to pass this test, he says that a building must be interesting from three distances: from city distance at over 40m, from street distance at around 20m and from door distance at about 2m. It’s a credible rule. A rule to ensure that buildings do engage from distance and by close by.
Heatherwick concludes his book by asking a number of likely to be asked questions, of which I quote from two. So, you’re saying that all new buildings should look iconic, like the Sydney Opera House? That would be ridiculous, I’m only saying that buildings should have enough care, complexity and emotional intelligence built into them that the people who use them and pass by are nourished by them.
Isn’t this the fault of planners? They have played a huge part in the problem-but in my experience, planners these days are often desperate to approve more interesting buildings. I think they need to step up and be proud of their humanising potential.
The clarion call therefore is to challenge the ‘same as’, dare to be joyful and exuberant in design. We don’t need bland pastiche. Make buildings that contribute positively to our world by adding richness and intrigue.
Whilst I do not agree with everything in the book, I nevertheless found it enlightening. It made me more positive about stepping outside the boundaries of convention. So, make 2026 the year of challenge. Push those boundaries and don’t take no for an answer.