2012 cauldron designer Thomas Heatherwick to tour the world

The designer of the Olympic cauldron, new Routemaster and Thames Garden Bridge is to launch two major touring exhibitions in the US and Asia.

Thomas Heatherwick’s work is enjoying increasing admiration from peers and critics, with Terence Conran calling him the “Leonardo da Vinci of our times”.

According to Architects’ Journal, Heatherwick, 44, is planning a US tour starting in Dallas next month — the first presentation of his work by a North American museum.

Provocations: The Architecture and Design of Heatherwick Studio will then head to Los Angeles and New York. It will focus on large architectural projects in Britain, Singapore, South Africa, Abu Dhabi and China, and early projects such as the handbag for Longchamp and rotation-moulded “Spun” chairs.

An Asian tour is planned for next year, to begin in Singapore in spring.

Heatherwick’s fiery cauldron at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford became a symbol of the 2012 Games.

His new Routemaster was commissioned by Boris Johnson to replace and update the aging hop-on hop-off vehicle, and the “Boris bus” is now a familiar sight on London’s streets. His vision for a “living” Garden Bridge is currently in the planning process.

The £175 million pedestrian crossing, linking the South Bank to the north side of the river near Temple Tube station, would host woodland and meandering walkways, although some critics have warned it could obscure views of St Paul’s from the South Bank.

The US tour visits Dallas from September 13 to January 4. It will be in Los Angeles from 15 February to May 24 and New York from June 21 to October 26.

Heatherwick Studio’s latest accounts, to March 31 last year, show a 66 per cent drop in profit-before-tax compared to the previous year, AJ reported. The firm attributed the drop to “considerable investment in staff, infrastructure and charitable activities”. Turnover was up from £6.1 million to £6.8 million.