Thomas Heatherwick’s book: ‘Humanise: A Maker’s Guide to Building Our world’ is published today in South Korea.

The launch of the book is part of a 10-year global initiative to help make buildings and cities radically more human. It encourages design and industry professionals to focus on real people’s needs to create human-centred, socially beneficial, and sustainable architecture.

Thomas Heatherwick said:

“Some of the most inspiring conversations I’ve had about city-making are happening in South Korea, where the culture has become an international phenomenon. The country is not only looking outward, but this global perspective is also empowering its own growth. There is a hunger in South Korea to make the world around us more special, and an understanding that it will bring something meaningful to citizens. My hope is that my book and this initiative can support and encourage that.”

The book and a campaign launched concurrently call for ending the catastrophe of boring buildings which are harmful for public health and the health of our planet. To help solve this urban crisis, Thomas Heatherwick suggests one simple rule: a building should be able to hold your attention for the time it takes to pass by. It also proposes three core mantras for the planners and developers who can make a difference:

1) Emotion as a function. Accept that how people feel about a building is a critical part of its function.

2) 1,000-year thinking. Design buildings with the hope and expectation that they will last 1,000 years.

3) Prioritise door distance. Concentrate a building’s interesting qualities at the two-metre door distance – this how most of the passers-by see buildings.

The publication of the book comes after recent announcement that Thomas Heatherwick will act as the General Director of the 5th Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism which will take place in the city in September and October next year.

Heatherwick studio is working on several projects in South Korea, including the reimagination of Nodeul Island where the studio’s design proposal won the public vote to transform the island into a park inspired by Korean tradition and connection to music, and Hanwha Galleria – a new public space in the Gangnam district of Seoul.

For more information about the Humanise campaign, visit humanise.org