{"id":834,"date":"2025-09-26T10:25:46","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scientificmediagroup.com\/?p=834"},"modified":"2025-10-02T16:15:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T16:15:51","slug":"seoul-architecture-biennale-a-very-sincere-attempt-to-invite-a-bigger-conversation-says-thomas-heatherwick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.scientificmediagroup.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/26\/seoul-architecture-biennale-a-very-sincere-attempt-to-invite-a-bigger-conversation-says-thomas-heatherwick\/","title":{"rendered":"Seoul Architecture Biennale “a very sincere attempt to invite a bigger conversation” says Thomas Heatherwick"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Thomas<\/div>\n

This year’s Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism<\/a>\u00a0aims to directly engage the public rather than replicate the “echo chamber” of other architecture festivals, says the event’s general director Thomas Heatherwick<\/a> in this exclusive interview<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking to Dezeen ahead of the opening of the fifth Seoul Architecture Biennale<\/a> today, Heatherwick explained that he wants to start a conversation with the city’s population about its architecture.<\/p>\n

“A public conversation is so important because public conversation creates the background context that influences everyone, and we have neglected to speak to the public,” the British designer told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

“There has been a prevailing atmosphere, or mindset, that the public are ignorant and they don’t understand, and I think that’s a very toxic way to think about society.”<\/p>\n

“We so frequently perpetuate an echo chamber”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heatherwick deliberately set out to create an event that was not aimed at architects and designers. Instead, he wanted to engage the public.<\/p>\n

“I think there are now two or three hundred different creative biennales and the classic thing about the biennales is that they are for people within the industry,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We so frequently perpetuate an echo chamber \u2013 I’m sure there are dentistry biennales and the dentists all speak to the dentists,” he continued.<\/p>\n

“Certainly in construction, we have an industry that speaks to itself again and again and again, and there is a role for that, but what do we add by creating another one?”<\/p>\n

“We are rubbish at having bigger public conversations”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Engaging with the city’s population was especially important, said Heatherwick, as the event is entirely funded by the city.<\/p>\n

He saw it as an opportunity to expand the conversation about the exteriors of buildings, which has been central to his ongoing Humanise<\/a> campaign.<\/p>\n