Viking lands designer Heatherwick's book on how buildings and cities lost their soul

Viking has snapped up a “profound” book on how buildings and cities around the world lost their soul and what we can do about it by designer Thomas Heatherwick. 

Daniel Crewe, publishing director, and Greg Clowes, commissioning editor, acquired world rights to Humanise from Elizabeth Sheinkman at PFD. It will publish in autumn 2023. 

The synopsis says: “Thomas Heatherwick shows how design has a profound effect on our mental and physical health, the climate, as well as the peace and cohesion of societies. He shows how a flawed idea of utility and ‘efficiency’ has engulfed our towns and cities and hardened into a form of bland minimalism. But it doesn’t have to be this way: there are other ways to build – with the power to lift our spirits, engage and connect us. 

“Heatherwick draws on his own work, the ideas of other experts in the field, and recent advances in neuroscience and cognitive psychology to offer both a case against the inhumanity of modernist design and a rallying cry to everyone to imagine the world anew. Looking through his eyes, we take in places around the world, old and new, famous and obscure, that can sap the life out of us – or nourish our senses and our psyche. 

“Humanise is a tautly argued provocation and an urgent call-to-arms to make the world around us a far better place for everyone to live.” 

Crewe and Clowes said: “Thomas Heatherwick has an incredible mind and sees the world in a fascinating way. Humanise allows us to see through his eyes, alter our perception of the world around us and see how we can put the human experience back at the heart of our towns and cities. This book is a manifesto for vital change. We are excited and honoured to be Thomas Heatherwick’s publisher.” 

Heatherwick added: “When did you last stand in a city with new buildings all around you and find real joy in the surroundings? What’s happened to all the lumps and bumps, the shadows, the textures, the high points of light? When did it all become so boring? I want this book to help trigger a new humanising movement around the world so that we no longer tolerate soulless, inhuman spaces.”