Graduate wins UK's top design award

Thomas Heatherwick, a graduate of MMU School of Design, has won the prestigious Prince Philip Prize, the industry's equivalent of the Oscars.

The 36-year-old 'upstart' beat well-established names such as Richard Rogers, textile designer Lucienne Day, and Stephen Payne, the man who designed the Queen Mary liner, and is already being hailed as the "new Leonardo."

"He combines the designer's natural problem-solving instinct with art, archtecture, engineering and the craftsman's fascination with materials to create daring and inspiring concepts, said David Kester CEO of the Design Council. which runs the annual award.

Heatherwick's creations are brave and often awe-inspiring, like Manchester's 'B of the Bang' - Britain's largest sculpture, the somersaulting Rolling Bridge in London, and the "floating" staircase at the longchamp's flagship New york store.

Three-dimensional design

His victory is all the more significant as it is usually given for lifetime achievement, yet Heatherwick, who graduated from MMU's three-dimensional design degree, is a relative newcomer.

At MMU, he was cranking out impressive designs even as an undergraduate, raising $50,000 in sponsorship money to build a pavilion at Goodwood Sculpture park in Sussex. He got his big break shortly after while at the Royal College of Art, when design guru Sir Terence Conran commissioned Thomas to build a gazebo for his back garden.

For more about three-dimensional design (furniture, interior design, lighting, ceramics, industrial design, jewellery and glass), go to www.artdes.mmu.ac.uk/courses/programme/1025