{
  "id": 11721847,
  "title": "Designer Has Warning About Modern Buildings—Now He's Fighting Back",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/03/designer-has-warning-about-modern-buildings-now-hes-fighting-back",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-03T16:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Newsweek",
    "slug": "newsweek",
    "url": "https://www.newsweek.com/designer-warning-modern-buildings-thomas-heatherwick-campaign-12518898"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Thomas Heatherwick, renowned for his thought-provoking designs like The Vessel in New York City and the Olympic cauldron from the 2012 Summer Olympics, has unveiled a 10-year global initiative called \"Humanise.\" The mission of this ambitious campaign is to counteract what Heatherwick terms the \"blandemic\" - a trend of increasingly monotonous and \"boring soulless buildings\" that are hurting public health. Heatherwick's firm, Heatherwick Studio, located in London and Shanghai, aims to create a world where architecture is more joyful, engaging, and human.\n\nIn a recent interview with architecture magazine Dezeen, Heatherwick stressed that buildings and public spaces profoundly impact our emotions, yet for decades, architecture has been driven by a narrow definition of function centered on efficiency and cost. He contends that this narrow focus on the functional aspects has led to buildings that are \"flat and faceless.\"\n\nThe Humanise campaign has embarked on a £1.5 million research project to investigate how buildings and urban spaces in the United Kingdom could be designed to promote health and well-being. Architect Aiste Dzikaraite, who founded Floa Design in London, echoed Heatherwick's concerns, stating that contemporary architecture has become overly \"flat and faceless\" due to the dominant influence of square footage on building costs.\n\nMeanwhile, Dane Danielson, a senior architect at Barge Design Solutions in Nashville, shared a similar viewpoint, suggesting that the issue lies more in the methods used to deliver buildings than in contemporary architecture itself. Danielson highlighted that modern architecture often lacks the qualities that make architecture meaningful, such as character, delight, surprise, movement, identity, and a sense of belonging.\n\nHeatherwick himself urges planners and developers to acknowledge emotion as a crucial aspect of design. Abigail Scott-Paul, the global head of the Humanise campaign, emphasized that while buildings should be functional, efficient, and sustainable, they must also bring joy to everyday life, foster a sense of belonging, and instill pride in the places where people live. Scott-Paul believes that emotion should be a key factor in design success, as evidenced by a recent survey conducted by Thinks Insight & Strategy, which found that 52% of people want to have a say in how buildings in their area look, yet 67% feel powerless in this regard.\n\nScott-Paul believes that AI and automation can be invaluable tools in expanding design capacity and delivering more human-centered designs at scale. However, she cautions against using these technologies merely to make buildings faster and cheaper, as this risks undermining the creative input of human designers. Heatherwick also warns against relying solely on technology to make buildings emotionless, emphasizing that emotions are what truly make a difference in how we design and interact with our environments.",
  "summary": "“I don't think the problem is contemporary architecture itself,” but rather how we deliver buildings, one architect told Newsweek.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}