No cliches, please

The Seed Cathedral is Thomas Heatherwick's bestknown project shown at 2010 Shanghai World Expo. The designer and his team have worked on other initiatives around the world, like Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The exposition had some 250 country pavilions, most of which were built like museums with their respective national images. Heatherwick's strategy to make something different seemed to have worked. Visitors were drawn in large numbers to the Seed Cathedral.

The UK pavilion, built on a slim budget compared with other Western countries, took up only one-sixth the area assigned to it and left the rest for the gathering public.

It was judged the best pavilion at that exposition.

The project became a turning point for Heatherwick Studio, opening doors worldwide, especially in China. He is now doing two projects in Shanghai - the 420,000-square-meter Shanghai Bund Finance Center and a silk museum and workshop in Shunde in South China's Guangdong province.

In 2012, Heatherwick Studio designed a cauldron for the London Olympics.

The current exhibition in China also shows older projects like the Rolling Bridge in London, the New Bus for London and some furniture designs that Heatherwick and his teams worked on.

At the moment, Heatherwick Studio is working on four continents on projects valued at more than 2 billion pounds ($3 billion), including the Garden Bridge over Thames River and the Google campus in Silicon Valley.

He is also keen to find opportunities to work on socially-relevant projects such as schools, hospitals or prisons, Heatherwick says.