Humanise: A Maker's Guide to Building Our World is Thomas Heatherwick's sustained argument against the bland minimalism that has colonised our cities — drawing on neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and decades of built work to make the case for human-centred design.
About This Book
Somewhere between postwar utility and the cult of efficiency, our built environment lost its capacity to nourish. Heatherwick traces how a flawed idea of what buildings should do has hardened into a global monotony — streets, towers, and institutions that deplete rather than sustain the people who inhabit them. Using places from around the world, famous and obscure, old and new, he maps the relationship between architectural design and mental health, social cohesion, and even climate. This is not nostalgia for ornament; it is a serious, research-grounded call to reconsider what we build and why. Essential reading for anyone who cares about the human consequences of design decisions.
Key Features
- 496 pages of cross-disciplinary argument spanning architecture, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and urban design
- Published by Penguin UK
What You'll Discover
- How recent advances in neuroscience and cognitive psychology reveal the measurable impact of built environments on mental and physical health
- Why the modernist doctrine of utility and efficiency produced a form of bland minimalism, and how that ideology became entrenched in our towns and cities
- A global survey of places — famous and obscure — that either deplete or restore the people who move through them, examined through Heatherwick's own design sensibility
- Concrete alternatives to the dominant model: ways of building that engage the senses, strengthen community, and lift the spirit without abandoning contemporary needs
About the Author
Thomas Heatherwick is a British designer and the founder of Heatherwick Studio, known internationally for projects that challenge the conventions of architecture and urban design. He draws here on his own practice alongside the work of researchers and thinkers across multiple disciplines to construct a coherent critique of the contemporary built world.
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 496
- Dimensions: 9.5 x 12.5 x 5 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9780241389799
- Publisher: Penguin UK
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects, urban designers, and design students questioning the dominant minimalist paradigm; researchers working at the intersection of built environment and wellbeing; practitioners seeking a theoretically grounded argument for more humane design.