Beyond the expected

Thomas Heatherwick (born 1970) is one of our most exciting and inventive designers, so it is somewhat unfortunate that he is much associated in the public mind with a project that failed, the memorably named ‘B of the Bang’. This was a sculpture commissioned to commemorate the 2002 Commonwealth Games held in Manchester, and the idea was to create a sunburst of tubes and poles to symbolise an explosion of energy. It was a good idea and a formidable undertaking. Erected in 2005, it was plagued with technical problems and bits even fell off. It was taken down in 2009, and only the documentation remains. As I said, an unfortunate association, but also a salutary one, for it reminds us that the path of an innovative designer does not always run smooth, dependent as every visionary is on the skills of fabricators and engineers.

Heatherwick himself comes from an engineering background, but his work is not limited to straight design and readily crosses the border with art. This is such a frequent occurrence today that it poses the question — do all designers secretly yearn to be artists? Certainly, you might expect an artist (rather than a designer) to be commissioned to make the ‘B of the Bang’ monument, if contemporary public sculpture were not in such a lamentable state. Heatherwick obviously came up with the best proposal, so it was just a question of implementing it. As the current, fascinating exhibition, sponsored by Ernst & Young, shows, it is always easier to come up with seductive and impressive ideas than to realise them.