Thomas Heatherwick will deliver a keynote address at the 2026 Global Wellness Summit, where he plans to argue that the design of cities should be treated as a public health issue. The designer and founder of Heatherwick Studio will speak at the summit’s 20th anniversary event, which runs from 10 to 13 November at Angsana Laguna Phuket in Thailand. His talk will bring architecture, urban design, and placemaking into a conversation that has long centred on spas, fitness, and clinical care.
Heatherwick has spent the past several years building a case that the built environment has measurable effects on human health and emotion. In 2023 he launched Humanise, a 10-year campaign to put human emotion back at the centre of building design. The campaign draws on research into neurological and physiological responses to architecture, including studies that suggest visually monotonous surroundings can increase stress. Heatherwick Studio says the goal is to create places that feel more joyful, engaging, and human.
Thomas Heatherwick will examine the impact of the built environment on health during the GWS / Elena Heatherwick
That campaign has made Heatherwick one of the most outspoken critics of what he calls boring and soulless architecture. He has predicted that neuroscience will play a growing role in shaping real estate and design decisions: “Property developers may have to treat neuroscientific findings as key information” when designing buildings, he has said. The statement reflects a broader shift in how some designers think about the relationship between space and the body, moving from intuition toward data.
Nancy Davis, executive director and chief creative officer of the Global Wellness Summit, said the invitation reflects the widening scope of what the wellness industry considers relevant. “We have long understood that wellness is about much more than what happens inside a spa, a gym or a doctor’s office,” she said. “The environments we create around ourselves can profoundly shape our physical and emotional wellbeing.” Davis praised Heatherwick’s ability to make buildings feel more human and engaging. “His work invites people to engage with places rather than simply pass through them, and that is a powerful idea for the future of wellness,” she said.
Heatherwick’s connection to the wellness and hospitality sector now extends beyond speeches. His studio is designing Hatai, a mixed-use development in Bangkok that the firm describes as its first project in Thailand. The project is due to open in late 2027 and will contain more than 300 hotel rooms split between a Six Senses property and a new Narai Hotel, along with a wellness centre, a ballroom, and conference facilities. Its 5,200sq m public realm will include planting, water features, elevated walkways, and a restored canal. Heatherwick has said the intention is to create a development that “gives back to the street.”
The summit itself carries the theme The Science, Art and Soul of Wellness, a phrase that signals how the event is linking clinical research with design and culture. Heatherwick joins a speaker roster that includes Blue Zones founder Dan Buettner, Minor International founder William Heinecke, longevity researcher Andrea Maier, Desa Potato Head co-founder Ronald Akili, and neuroarts specialist Susan Magsamen. The programme will cover topics from longevity medicine and women’s health to wellness tourism, neuroaesthetics, and the links between creativity, science, and human wellbeing.
- Event: Global Wellness Summit 2026, 20th anniversary edition
- Dates: 10 to 13 November 2026
- Venue: Angsana Laguna Phuket, Thailand
- Theme: The Science, Art and Soul of Wellness
- Keynote speaker: Thomas Heatherwick, founder and design director, Heatherwick Studio
The inclusion of an architect as a headline speaker at a wellness conference marks a clear step toward treating the design of buildings and public spaces as a health discipline rather than a purely aesthetic one. Whether that shift changes how developers commission work remains to be seen, but Heatherwick will have a platform in Phuket to make the case that it should.
