Thomas Heatherwick

The Learning Hub is a collection of handmade concrete towers surrounding a central space that brings everyone together, interspersed with nooks, balconies and gardens for informal collaborative learning.

Our job is to get people in, create the spaces, and then get out of the way.

It gives me the creeps when I see a frame for a building going up and recognise the architect. You shouldn't know who a project is by.

One great building does not make a great city.

The studio does projects all over the world, and in each place, we focus on trying to make a project specific to that place. We take a different perspective everywhere we work - our passion is public projects, wherever they are.

When you think about the worst places humans come into contact with, they are often our health environments.

I'm very interested in buildings that have meaning for a particular place. I suppose it feels slightly rude to me if the imposed style that lands in a place is almost stronger than the place. For me it's about inventing a solution for each place; if people then want to know who did it, then great.

To make architecture with any real value is a massive challenge.

I'm not really interested in creating things to be seen inside a private gallery. I'm interested in creating things that are all around us, that engage us. I just find the things that I respond to are useful.

I have a strong sense that every project is an invention, which is not a word I hear being used in architecture courses.

My studio's passion is improving the public experience of cities for everyone.

I used to say I'm not a business. I'm not! But I've had to come round to it, to acknowledge that you had to be an organisation and had to have a business dimension in order to do your passion.