Bjarke Ingels – BIG Biography
BIG, established by Bjarke Ingels in 2005, is one of the world’s most sophisticated studios in the definition of metropolitan situations and horizons.
BIG has actually worked on numerous jobs all over the world, all sharing a visionary view and an interest in innovative theories about modern society and lifestyles.
Its 2 workplaces in Copenhagen and New York bring together professionals from all over the world, promoting cultural exchange as a source of wealth in design.
The group’s competence varies from architecture to style, from principle creation to engineering.
The studio also checks out brand-new disciplines bounding on architecture, stimulating research study and creating brand-new viewpoints on the cities we will reside in years to come. Digital representation technologies are seen not as an end in themselves but as a way of accomplishing these objectives. Society, economics and ecology are the styles dearest to Bjarke Ingels and his group, addressed in each of his projects.
Ingels started his career working at OMA with Rem Koolhaas; in 2001 he co-founded PLOT (Julien De Smedt and Bjarke Ingels).
In his academic career, Ingels has been checking out professor at Rice University School of Architecture and at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University and visiting professor at Harvard University.
In 2004 he was granted a Golden Lion at the Biennale in Venice for his Stavanger Concert House, and the following year he won the Forum AID Award for his VM houses.
The Mountain housing development, that made Bjarke Ingels famous all over the world, has gotten countless awards consisting of the World Architecture Celebration Housing Award, the Forum Aid Award and the MIPIM Residential Development Award.
Interview
BJARKE INGELS. Individuals simply move freely around the city. And in one of our latest tasks we really took a neighbourhood of town houses however with little gardens in front and we developed a metropolitan block so individuals can actually stroll or cycle all the method from the garden to the penthouse.
You have an another significant continuous job in Copenhagen, which is the Amager Bakke waste-to-energy plant. This is a good obstacle for the city and for the sustainability of the city.
BJARKE INGELS. This task is so huge and it is in the middle of the city, in the harbour location. In winter season, people can take a lift to the top of the power station and just ski down for enjoyable all the method to the ground flooring.
This is an excellent example of mix of public space with town utility. How was the project accepted by the people?
BJARKE INGELS. Usually when you prepare to construct a power plant in the middle of the city, you can anticipate a great deal of grievances: individuals do not want to live next to a power plant but we received e-mail messages from individuals asking when the project was going to be finished because they were anticipating snowboarding!
More just recently you won another important worldwide style competition for a new 27.000 m2 cultural complex in Albania, can you tell us more about this task?
BJARKE INGELS. The task is for a complex with a Museum of Religious Harmony, an Islamic Centre and a Mosque. When we went to Tirana to have a look at the project, we went on weekends, on Fridays and unique holidays.
You constantly involve the city in your tasks, and you normally handle social projects, but what do you think is the relationship in between architecture and politics?
BJARKE INGELS. I think politics is the procedure of attempting to listen to the desires and demands and issues of residents and turn these cumulative concerns into political reality through representation; in an extremely similar though more hid method architecture handle accommodating the issues and demands of residents. As designers we are at the centre of attempting to continuously collaborate the collective effort of making sure that our cities and structures fit with the method we desire to live and in a perfect world that is also what politicians should be doing.
Do you think that architecture is a marketing tool for politics or politics is a tool for Hualien Residences – just click the following page, an architect to attain something essential in a city?
BJARKE INGELS. Here in Italy I believe for example how odd to see the case of Stefano Boeri, organiser of Festarch and Editor of Abitare, who used to be an architect interested in politics and now he is most likely more like a political leader interested in architecture.
Rather challenging I guess. How do you feel when people say you are “l’Enfant horrible” of style and architecture?
BJARKE INGELS. I don’t really understand about that! I think that quite early on in my career I realised I was typically more interested in the society rather than in looking at architecture in isolation. Instead of thinking about architecture as an autonomous art form separated from the rest of the world, I really see the function of architecture and of designers to be totally included with the rest of society. Due to the fact that they develop possibilities that somehow plug into day-to-day life, as a result in some cases our tasks might relate more to people that are not designers. In the Danish pavilion in Shanghai there was a bath. The idea was to create a very active architecture where you can stroll and cycle through the structure and through the exhibits, you can dip your toes in the pool in the middle. There is a socially-provocative bench that promotes different types of interaction with the structure. There is an artwork in the shape of a fountain that likewise becomes almost like a playground for kids. In many ways it is an architecture that does not simply attempt to look poetic or lovely but it actually creates possibilities. Some people would argue that developing a ski slope on top of a power plant has nothing to do with architecture but this is in some way the architecture of organising all elements of human life in brand-new mixes. As a sort of sign of humanistic sustainability, it is both financially and ecologically sustainable by turning rubbish into heat and energy but likewise socially sustainable by turning a power plant into a public park.
The studio likewise checks out new disciplines bounding on architecture, promoting research study and coming up with brand-new perspectives on the cities we will live in years to come. Rather than considering architecture as an autonomous art kind separated from the rest of the world, I actually see the role of architecture and of designers to be completely involved with the rest of society. The idea was to develop an extremely active architecture where you can stroll and cycle through the pavilion and through the exhibitions, you can dip your toes in the swimming pool in the middle. In lots of methods it is an architecture that does not just attempt to look poetic or lovely but it truly produces possibilities. Some people would argue that creating a ski slope on top of a power plant has nothing to do with architecture but this is somehow the architecture of arranging all aspects of human life in new mixtures.