Thomas Heatherwick is currently a busy man.

With the unveiling of his 'Seed Cathedral' - the UK pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 - now complete, the British designer has also recently revealed these beautiful sculptural spinning top chairs.

A more monumental version of a range he created for Magis, the limited-edition Spun chair in copper and steel has been produced for London gallery Haunch of Venison.

'Spun' is the result of Heatherwick's research into the geometric simplification of a familiar object type. Asking whether a completely rotationally symmetrical form make a comfortable chair, the answer seems to be yes.

Developed through full-size test pieces an ergonomic was established where seat, back and arms were all the same profile. The result is not immediately apparent as a chair and when upright looks more like a vessel.

However, when lent on its side it forms a comfortable and functional chair that the sitter can rock from side to side in, or even spin round in a complete circle.

Heatherwick seems to be making a habit of creating fabulously sculpural metal chairs - have a look at our previous article about a piece he launched at the London Design Festival last year...