Thomas Heatherwick's war on boring buildings: 'I've never gone against the whole industry before'

Thomas Heatherwick is sitting down with a delegation from Singapore when I arrive at his new open"‘plan office in central London, so I busy myself admiring the seating options in the waiting area. There are clever spinning-top chairs that his studio developed in 2010; seats removed from one of the Routemaster buses he designed; and a cluster of mushroom-like wooden stools, arranged over a welcoming layer of overlapping kilim rugs. Dotted around are models of the studio's projects, including a miniature version of the vast Google "landscraper" (of which more later) that is being constructed opposite the Guardian's newsroom. Before…