While British designer Thomas Heatherwick already has a wonky collection of project proposals to his name, including grain silo museums and bridges made from planters, this (actually built) gin distillery in Hampshire, England, is in a Willy Wonka-meets-steam punk category of its very own. The bulk of Bombay Sapphire's manufacturing plant is housed in a cluster of restored Victorian brick buildings, while "two sculptural glasshouses"—a.k.a. some very fantasy-like glass trombones or, as Co. Design somewhat dubiously labels them, "two giant drops of gin"—foster the heat used for the distillation process. Heathwick calls the project, which marks the company's first-ever private distillery and his first-ever gig in England, an "honor."
· Thomas Heatherwick's gin distillery
for Bombay Sapphire opens [Dezeen]
· All Thomas Heatherwick coverage [Curbed National]