Bjarke Bundgaard Ingels (; born 2 October 1974) is a Danish
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
, founder and creative partner of
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).
In Denmark, Ingels became well known after designing two housing complexes in
Ărestad:
VM Houses
VM Houses is a housing project consisting of two adjacent apartment buildings in Ărestad, Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed by JDS Architects and Bjarke Ingels Group, the M House with 95 units was completed in 2004 and the V House with 114 units, i ...
and
Mountain Dwellings. In 2006 he founded
Bjarke Ingels Group, which grew to a staff of 400 by 2015, with noted projects including the
8 House housing complex,
VIA 57 West in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...
, the
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
North Bayshore headquarters (co-designed with
Thomas Heatherwick
Thomas Alexander Heatherwick, (born 17 February 1970) is an English designer and the founder of London-based design practice Heatherwick Studio. He works with a team of around 200 architects, designers and makers from a studio and workshop in ...
), the
Superkilen
Superkilen is a public park in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. The park is designed to bring immigrants and locals together, promoting tolerance and unity in one of Denmark's most ethnically-diverse and socially-challenged communit ...
park, and the
Amager Resource Center (ARC) waste-to-energy plant â the latter which incorporates both a ski slope and climbing wall on the building exterior.
Since 2009, Ingels has won numerous
architectural competitions. He moved to New York City in 2012, where in addition to the
VIA 57 West, BIG won a design contest after Hurricane Sandy for improving Manhattan's flood resistance.
In 2011, ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' named Ingels ''Innovator of the Year'' for architecture, and in 2016 ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...
'' named him one of the 100 ''Most Influential People.
Early life and background
Born in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
in 1974, Ingels' father is an engineer and his mother is a dentist.
Hoping to become a cartoonist, he began studying architecture in 1993 at the
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts ( da, Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi - Billedkunst Skolerne) has provided education in the arts for more than 250 years, playing its part in the development of the art of Denmark.
History
The Royal Dan ...
, thinking it would help him improve his drawing skills. After several years, he began an earnest interest in architecture.
[Ellen Bokkinga, "Bjarke Ingels: a BIG architect with a mission"]
, ''TedX Amsterdam'' Retrieved 8 October 2012. He continued his studies at the
Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
, and returned to Copenhagen to receive his diploma in 1999.
["Barje Ingels: The European Prize for Architecture"](_blank)
''Urbanscraper''. Retrieved 12 October 2012. As a third-year student in Barcelona, he set up his first practice and won his first competition.
Alongside his architectural practice, Ingels has been a
visiting professor
In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...
at the
Rice University School of Architecture
Rice School of Architecture, also referred to as ''Rice Architecture'', is a small undergraduate and graduate institution located within the international research university, Rice University in Houston, Texas. The graduate and undergraduate progr ...
, the
Harvard Graduate School of Design
The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) is the graduate school of design at Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It offers master's and doctoral programs in architecture, landscape architecture, urba ...
, the
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and most recently, the
Yale School of Architecture.
Career
1998â2005
From 1998 to 2001, Ingels worked for
Rem Koolhaas
Remment Lucas Koolhaas (; born 17 November 1944) is a Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is often cited as a r ...
at the
Office for Metropolitan Architecture
The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international architectural firm with offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. The firm is currently led by eight partners - Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van L ...
in
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the RhineâMeuseâScheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
. In 2001, he returned to Copenhagen to set up the architectural practice PLOT together with
Belgian OMA colleague
Julien de Smedt. The company received national and international attention for their inventive designs.
[Vladimir Belogolovsky, "One-on-One: Architecture as a Social Instrument: Interview with Bjarke Ingels of BIG"]
''ArchNewsNow'', 1 March 2011. Retrieved 8 October 2012. They were awarded a
Golden Lion at the
Venice Biennale of Architecture
Venice Biennale of Architecture (in Italian
Mostra di Architettura di Venezia) is an international exhibition of architecture from nations around the world, held in Venice, Italy, every other year. It was held on even years until 2018, but 202 ...
in 2004 for a proposal for a new music house for
Stavanger
Stavanger (, , US usually , ) is a city and municipality in Norway. It is the fourth largest city and third largest metropolitan area in Norway (through conurbation with neighboring Sandnes) and the administrative center of Rogaland county. T ...
, Norway.
["Ingels to Address NSAD Students on Feb. 25 at the Museum of Natural History in San Diego"](_blank)
, ''New School of Architecture + Design''. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
PLOT completed a series of five open-air swimming pools,
Islands Brygge Harbour Bath, on the
Copenhagen Harbour
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...
front with special facilities for children in 2003. They also completed
Maritime Youth House
Maritime may refer to:
Geography
* Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps
* Maritime Region, a region in Togo
* Maritime Southeast Asia
* The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Pr ...
, a sailing club and a youth house at Sundby Harbour, Copenhagen.
The first major achievement for PLOT was the award-winning
VM Houses
VM Houses is a housing project consisting of two adjacent apartment buildings in Ărestad, Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed by JDS Architects and Bjarke Ingels Group, the M House with 95 units was completed in 2004 and the V House with 114 units, i ...
in
Ărestad, Copenhagen, in 2005. Inspired by
Le Corbusier
Charles-Ădouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
's UnitĂŠ d'Habitation concept, they designed two residential blocks, in the shape of the letters V and M (as seen from the sky); the M House with 95 units, was completed in 2004, and the V House, with 114 units, in 2005. The design places strong emphasis on daylight, privacy and views.
Rather than looking over the neighboring building, all of the apartments have diagonal views of the surrounding fields. Corridors are short and bright, rather like open bullet holes through the building. There are some 80 different types of apartment in the complex, adaptable to individual needs. The building garnered Ingels and Smedt the
Forum AID Award for the best building in Scandinavia in 2006. Ingels lived in the complex until 2008 when he moved into the adjacent
Mountain Dwellings.
In 2005, Ingels also completed the
Helsingør Psychiatric Hospital in
Helsingør
Helsingør ( , ; sv, HelsingÜr), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a city in eastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 62,686 on 1 January 2018. Helsingør and Helsingborg in Sweden together form the northe ...
, a hospital which is shaped like a
snowflake
A snowflake is a single ice crystal that has achieved a sufficient size, and may have amalgamated with others, which falls through the Earth's atmosphere as snow.Knight, C.; Knight, N. (1973). Snow crystals. Scientific American, vol. 228, no. ...
.
Each room of the hospital was specially designed to have a view, with two groups of rooms facing the lake, and one group facing the surrounding hills.
2006â2008
After PLOT was disbanded at the end of 2005, in January 2006 Ingels made
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) its own company.
[Ian Parker, "High Rise"]
''The New Yorker'', 10 September 2012. Retrieved 8 October 2012. It grew to 400 employees by 2016.
BIG began working on the
Mountain Dwellings on the VM houses site in the Ărestad district of Copenhagen, combining of housing with of parking and parking space, with a mountain theme throughout the building.
The apartments scale the diagonally sloping roof of the parking garage, from street level to 11th floor, creating an artificial, south facing 'mountainside' where each apartment has a terrace measuring around .
The parking garage contains spots for 480 cars.
The space has up to ceilings, and the underside of each level of apartments is covered in aluminium painted in a distinctive colour scheme of psychedelic
hue
In color theory, hue is one of the main properties (called color appearance parameters) of a color, defined technically in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that ...
s which, as a tribute to Danish 1960s and '70s furniture designer
Verner Panton, are all exact matches of the colours he used in his designs.
The colours move, symbolically, from green for the earth over yellow, orange, dark orange, hot pink, purple to bright blue for the sky.
The northern and western facades of the parking garage depict a photorealistic mural of Himalayan peaks.
The parking garage is protected from wind and rain by huge shiny aluminium plates, perforated to let in light and allow for natural ventilation. By controlling the size of the holes, the sheeting was transformed into the giant
rasterized image of
Mount Everest
Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The ChinaâNepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow ...
.
Completed in October 2008, it received the
World Architecture Festival
The World Architecture Festival (WAF) is an annual festival and awards ceremony, one of the most prestigious events dedicated to the architecture and development industry. The first four events were held in Barcelona, from 2008 to 2011, at which p ...
Housing Award (2008),
Forum AID Award (2009) and the
MIPIM
MIPIM (in French, Le MarchĂŠ International des Professionnels de Lâimmobilier) is an international property event hosted in Cannes, France, each March. It is hosted by Reed MIDEM and includes an exhibition area, networking events and conference ...
Residential Development Award at
Cannes
Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ci ...
(2009).
''Dwell'' magazine has stated that the Mountain Dwellings "stand as a beacon for architectural possibility and stylish multifamily living in a dense, design-savvy city."
Their third housing project,
8 House, commissioned by Store Frederikslund Holding, Høpfner A/S and Danish Oil Company A/S in 2006 and completed in October 2010, was the largest private development ever undertaken in Denmark and in Scandinavia, combining retail with commercial row houses and apartments. It is also Ingels' third housing development in Ărestad, following VM Houses and Mountain Dwellings.
["8 House / BIG"]
''Arch Daily''. Retrieved 11 October 2012. The sloping, bow-shaped 10-storey building consists of of three different types of residential housing and of retail premises and offices, providing views over the fields and marches of
Kalvebod Faelled to the south. The 476-unit apartment building forms a figure 8 around two courtyards.
Noted for its green roof which won it the 2010 Scandinavian Green Roof Award, Ingels explained, "The parts of the green roof that remain were seen by the client as integral to the building as they are visible from the ground. These not only provide the environmental benefits that we all know come from green roofs, but also add to the visual drama and appeal of the sloping roofs and rooftop terrace in between." The building also won the Best Residential Building at the 2011
World Architecture Festival
The World Architecture Festival (WAF) is an annual festival and awards ceremony, one of the most prestigious events dedicated to the architecture and development industry. The first four events were held in Barcelona, from 2008 to 2011, at which p ...
, and the ''
Huffington Post'' included 8 House as one of the "10 Best Architecture Moments of 2001â2010."
[Jacob Slevin, "10 Best Architecture Moments of 2001â2010"]
''Huffington Post'', 23 December 2010. Retrieved 12 October 2012.
In 2007, Ingels exhibited at the
Storefront for Art and Architecture
Storefront for Art and Architecture is an independent, non-profit art and architecture organization located in SoHo, Manhattan in New York City. The organization is committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and desi ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
and was commissioned to design the
Danish Maritime Museum in Helsingør. The current museum is located on the
UNESCO World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
of nearby
Kronborg Castle
Kronborg is a castle and stronghold in the town of Helsingør, Denmark. Immortalized as Elsinore in William Shakespeare's play ''Hamlet'', Kronborg is one of the most important Renaissance castles in Northern Europe and was inscribed on the UN ...
.
The concept of the building is 'invisible' space, a subterranean museum which is still able to incorporate dramatic use of daylight.
In launching the $40 million project, BIG had to reinforce an abandoned concrete dry dock on the site, long, wide and deep, building the museum on the periphery of the reinforced dry dock walls which will form the facade of the new museum.
The dry dock will also host exhibitions and cultural events throughout the year.
The museum's interior is designed to simulate the ambiance of a ship's deck, with a slightly downward slope. The exhibition gallery is to house an extensive collection of paintings, model ships, and historical equipment and memorabilia from the Danish Navy.
Ingels is collaborating with consulting engineer
Rambøll
Rambøll Group A/S (also known as just "Ramboll") is a Danish consulting engineering group.
History
Rambøll was founded in October 1945 as "Rambøll & Hannemann" in Copenhagen. In 1991 the company merged with "B. Højlund Rasmussen A/S" in ...
,
Alectia
Alectia A/S is a Danish consulting company with approx. 700 employees (2014) and an annual turnover in 2014 of 623 million DKK. The company is owned entirely by the Alectia-Foundation. Alectia is headquartered in Virum with regional offices in ...
for project management, and E. Pihl & Søn and Kossmann.dejong for construction and interior design.
Some 11 different foundations are funding the project. Construction began on the museum in September 2010 and it is scheduled for completion by the summer of 2013.
In September 2012, the Kronborg and Zig-Zag Bridge components to the building were shipped in from China.
2009âpresent: international scope
Ingels designed a pavilion in the shape of a loop for the Danish World
Expo 2010
Expo 2010, officially the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, was held on both banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China, from 1 May to 31 October 2010. It was a major World Expo registered by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), in the ...
pavilion in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
. The open-air steel pavilion has a spiral bicycle path, accommodating up to 300 cyclists who experience Danish culture and ideas for sustainable urban development.
In the centre, amid a pool of 1 million litres (264,172 gallons) of water, is the Copenhagen statue of ''The Little Mermaid'', paying homage to Danish author
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 â 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
Andersen's fairy tales, consist ...
.
In 2009, Ingels designed the new
National Library of Kazakhstan
The National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NLRK) is the national library of Kazakhstan. It acquires free legal copies of books, Republic and regional information, district journals, newspapers and other printed productions issued in Kazak ...
in
Astana
Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola, and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan.
The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, tho ...
located to the south of the State Auditorium, said to resemble a "giant metallic doughnut".
BIG and MAD designed the
Tilting Building in the
Huaxi
Huaxi may refer to these places in China:
* Western China
* Huaxi District (čąćşŞĺş), a district in Guiyang, Guizhou
* Huaxi Village (ĺ輿ć), a village in Jiangyin, Jiangsu
Subdistricts
*Huaxi Subdistrict, Chongqing (čąćşŞčĄé), in Banan ...
district of
Guiyang
Guiyang (; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), historically rendered as Kweiyang, is the capital of Guizhou province of the People's Republic of China. It is located in the center of the province, situated on the east of the YunnanâGuizhou Plateau, ...
, China, an innovative leaning tower with six facades.
Other projects included the city hall in
Tallinn
Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...
, Estonia, and the
Faroe Islands Education Centre Faroe may refer to:
* Faroe Islands, an archipelago in the North Atlantic and a part of the Kingdom of Denmark
** Faroese people
** Faroese language
* Danish ship ''FÌrøe''
* FĂĽrĂś, an island off Gotland, Sweden
* Farø, an island south of Zea ...
in
TĂłrshavn
TĂłrshavn (; lit. "Thor's harbour"), usually locally referred to as simply ''Havn'', is the capital and largest city of the Faroe Islands. It is located in the southern part on the east coast of Streymoy. To the northwest of the city lies the ...
,
Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, FÌrøerne ), are a North Atlantic archipelago, island group and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark.
They are located north-northwest of Scotlan ...
.
Accommodating some 1,200 students and 300 teachers, the facility has a central open rotunda for meetings between staff and pupils.
In 2010, ''Fast Company'' magazine included Ingels in its list of the 100 most creative people in business, mentioning his design of the Danish pavilion. BIG projects became increasingly international, including hotels in Norway, a museum overlooking
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de MĂŠxico, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...
, and converting an oil industry wasteland into a
zero-emission resort on
Zira Island
Boyuk Zira (BĂśyĂźk ZirÉ), also known as Nargin, is an island in the Caspian Sea. It is one of the islands of Baku Archipelago located in the Baku bay near Baku city. Nargin Island is part of the Baku Archipelago, which consists of the follo ...
off the coast of
Baku,
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, AzÉrbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
. The resort started construction in 2010, and represented the seven mountains of Azerbaijan. It was cited as "one of the world's largest eco-developments."
The "mountains" were covered with solar panels and provide for residential and commercial space. According to BIG, "The mountains are conceived not only as metaphors, but engineered as entire ecosystems, a model for future sustainable urban development".
In 2011, BIG won a competition to design the roof of the ''
AmagerforbrĂŚnding'' industrial building, with of ski slopes of varying skill levels.
The roof is put forward as another example of "hedonistic sustainability": designed from recycled synthetics, aiming to increase energy efficiency by up to 20 percent. In October 2011, ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' named Ingels the Innovator of the Year for architecture, later saying he was "becoming one of the design world's rising stars" in light of his portfolio.
[Robbie Whelan, "New Face of Design"]
''The Wall Street Journal'', 22 July 2012. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
In 2012, Ingels moved to New York to supervise work on a
pyramid
A pyramid (from el, ĎĎ
ĎÎąÎźÎŻĎ ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrila ...
-like apartment building on
West 57th Street,
a collaboration with real estate developer
Durst Fetner Residential. BIG opened a permanent New York office, and became committed to further work in New York. By mid-2012 that office had a staff of 50, which they used to launch other projects in North America.
In 2014 Ingels's design for an integrated flood protection system, the DryLine, was a winner of the ''Rebuild By Design'' competition created by the
Department of Housing and Urban Development
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and U ...
in the wake of
Hurricane Sandy
Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds span ...
. The DryLine will stretch Manhattan's shoreline on the Lower East Side, with a landscaped flood barrier in East River Park, enhanced pedestrian bridges over the
FDR drive
The Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive, commonly called the FDR Drive for short, is a limited-access parkway on the east side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It starts near South and Broad Streets, just north of the Battery Pa ...
, and permanent and deployable floodwalls north of East 14th Street.
BIG designed the
Lego
Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlockin ...
House that began construction in 2014 in
Billund, Denmark. Ingels said of it, "We felt that if BIG had been created with the single purpose of building only one building, it would be to design the house for
Lego
Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlockin ...
." Designed as a village of interlocking and overlapping buildings and spaces, the house is conceived with identical proportions to the toy bricks, and can be constructed one-for-one in miniature. They also designed the
Danish Maritime Museum in Elsinore, Denmark, and a master plan for the new
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
south campus in
Washington, D.C. This is part of a 20-year project that will begin in 2016.
Ingels also designed two extensions for his former High School in
Hellerup, Denmark
Hellerup () is a very affluent district of Gentofte Municipality in the suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. The most urban part of the district is centred on Strandvejen and is bordered by Ăsterbro to the south and the Ăresund to the east. It comp ...
â a handball court, and a larger arts and sports extension. The handball court, in homage to the architect's former math teacher, sports a roof with curvature that traces the trajectory of a thrown handball.
In 2015, Ingels began working on a new headquarters for
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
in
Mountain View, California
Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, it has a population of 82,376.
Mountain View was integral to the early history and growth of Silicon Valley, and is th ...
with
Thomas Heatherwick
Thomas Alexander Heatherwick, (born 17 February 1970) is an English designer and the founder of London-based design practice Heatherwick Studio. He works with a team of around 200 architects, designers and makers from a studio and workshop in ...
, the British designer.
Bloomberg Businessweek
''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
hailed the design as "The most ambitious project unveiled by Google this year..." in a feature article on the design and its architects. Later that year, BIG was chosen to take up the design of
Two World Trade Center
2 World Trade Center (2 WTC; also known as 200 Greenwich Street) is a planned skyscraper as part of the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City. It will replace the original 2 World Trade Center, which was completed in 1972 and ...
, one of the towers replacing the Twin Towers. The work had initially been entrusted to the British firm
Foster and Partners
Foster + Partners is a British architectural, engineering, and integrated design practice founded in 1967 as Foster Associates by Norman Foster. It is the largest architectural firm in the UK with over 1,500 employees in 13 studios worldwide ...
, but was revoked and given back to Foster in 2019.
Ingels was considered for the Hudsons Yard project. In late 2016, the project became official.
Other projects
In 2009, Ingels became a co-founder of the
KiBiSi design group, together with
Jens Martin Skibsted and
Lars Larsen. With its focus on urban mobility, architectural illumination and personal electronics, the company designs bicycles, furniture, household objects and aircraft, becoming one of Scandinavia's most influential design groups. KiBiSi designed the furniture for Ingels' Danish Pavilion at EXPO 2010.
Ingels's first book, ''Yes Is More: An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution'',
catalogued 30 projects from his practice. Designed in the form of a comic book, which he believed was the best way to tell stories about architecture, he later said that the medium contributed to the perception that some of his projects are cartoonish.
A sequel, ''Hot to Cold: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptation'', explored 60 case studies through a climatic lens, to examine where and how people live on the planet, working from the warmest regions to the coldest. The book was designed by Grammy Award-winning designer
Stefan Sagmeister
Stefan Sagmeister (born August 6, 1962) is an Austrian graphic designer, storyteller, and typographer based in New York City. In 1993, Sagmeister founded his company, Sagmeister Inc., to create designs for the music industry. He has designed al ...
, and accompanied by an exhibition of the same name at the
National Building Museum
The National Building Museum is located at 401 F Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private non-profit i ...
in
Washington D.C. The book featured well known projects such as VIA (
West 57th),
Amager Bakke,
8 House, Gammel Hellerup High School,
Superkilen
Superkilen is a public park in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. The park is designed to bring immigrants and locals together, promoting tolerance and unity in one of Denmark's most ethnically-diverse and socially-challenged communit ...
, The Lego House and the
Danish Maritime Museum, amongst others.
In 2009, Ingels spoke at a
TED event in Oxford, UK. He presented the case study "Hedonistic sustainability" in a workshop on managing complexity at the 3rd International
Holcim Forum 2010 in Mexico City, and was a member of the
Holcim Awards regional jury for Europe in 2011.
In 2015, a division of the
Kohler Company, Kallista, released a new line of bath and kitchen products designed by Ingels. Named "taper", the fixtures featured minimalist and mid-century Danish design.
In 2016, he was a keynote speaker at the leadership conference
Aarhus Symposium, in which he addressed the role of creativity and empowerment in leadership.
Film
Ingels was cast in ''
My Playground
My or MY may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* My (radio station), a Malaysian radio station
* Little My, a fictional character in the Moomins universe
* ''My'' (album), by Edyta GĂłrniak
* ''My'' (EP), by Cho Mi-yeon
Business
* Market ...
'', a documentary film by Kaspar Astrup SchrĂśder that explores
parkour
Parkour () is an athletic training discipline or sport in which practitioners (called ''traceurs'') attempt to get from point A to point B in the fastest and most efficient way possible, without assisting equipment and often while performing ...
and
freerunning
Freerunning is an athletic and acrobatic discipline incorporating an aesthetic element, and can be considered either a sport or a performance art, or both. Freerunning is similar to parkour, from which it is derived, but emphasizes artistry over ...
, with much of the action taking place on and around BIG projects.
He was also part of the documentary film ''Genre de Vie'', about bicycles, cities and personal awareness. It looks at desired space and our own impact to the process of it. The film documents urban life empowered by the simplicity of the bicycle.
Ingels was profiled in the first season of the
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
docu-series ''
Abstract: The Art of Design''.
Design philosophy
In 2009, ''
The Architectural Review
''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment â which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbani ...
'' said that Ingels and BIG "has abandoned 20th-century Danish modernism to explore the more fertile world of bigness and baroque eccentricity... BIG's world is also an optimistic vision of the future where art, architecture, urbanism and nature magically find a new kind of balance. Yet while the rhetoric is loud, the underlying messages are serious ones about global warming, community life, post-petroleum-age architecture and the youth of the city."
The
Netherlands Architecture Institute described him as "a member of a new generation of architects that combine shrewd analysis, playful experimentation, social responsibility and humour."
["Lecture: Bjarke Ingels. Hedonistic Sustainability"]
''Netherlands Architecture Institute''. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
In an interview in 2010, Ingels provided a number of insights on his design philosophy. He defines architecture as "the art of translating all the immaterial structures of society â social, cultural, economical and political â into physical structures." Architecture should "arise from the world" benefiting from the growing concern for our future triggered by discussion of climate change. In connection with his BIG practice, he explains: "Buildings should respond to the local environment and climate in a sort of conversation to make it habitable for human life" drawing, in particular, on the resources of the local climate which could provide "a way of massively enriching the vocabulary of architecture."
Luke Butcher
People
* Luke (given name), a masculine given name (including a list of people and characters with the name)
*Luke (surname) (including a list of people and characters with the name)
* Luke the Evangelist, author of the Gospel of Luke. Also known ...
noted that Ingels taps into metamodern sensibility, adopting a metamodern attitude; but he "seems to oscillate between modern positions and postmodern ones, a certain out-of-this-worldness and a definite down-to-earthness, naivety and knowingness, idealism and the practical."
Sustainable development and
renewable energy are important to Ingels, which he refers to as "hedonistic sustainability". He has said that "It's not about what we give up to be sustainable, it's about what we get. And that is a very attractive and marketable concept."
He has also been outspoken against "suburban biopsy" in
Holmen, Copenhagen
() is a water-bound neighbourhood in Copenhagen, Denmark, occupying the former grounds of the Royal Naval Base and Dockyards. In spite of its name, deceptively in singular, Holmen is a congregation of small islands, forming a north-eastern ext ...
, caused by wealthy older people (the grey-gold generation) living in the suburbs and wanting to move into the town to visit the Royal Theatre and the opera.
In 2014, Ingels released a video entitled
'Worldcraft'' as part of the
Future of StoryTelling
Founded in 2012 by Charles Melcher, Founder and CEO of Melcher Media, Future of StoryTelling (FoST) produces content throughout the year, including the two-day, invitation-only FoST Summit; storytelling workshops; curated exhibitions with local a ...
summit, which introduced his concept of creating architecture that focuses on turning "surreal dreams into inhabitable space". Citing the power of alternate reality programs and video games, like
Minecraft
''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before bein ...
, Ingels's 'worldcraft' is an extension of 'hedonistic sustainability' and further develops ideas established in his first book, ''Yes Is More''. In the video (and essay by the same name in his second book, ''Hot to Cold: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptation'') Ingels notes: "These fictional worlds empower people with the tools to transform their own environments. This is what architecture ought to be..." "Architecture must become Worldcraft, the craft of making our world, where our knowledge and technology doesn't limit us but rather enables us to turn surreal dreams into inhabitable space. To turn fiction into fact."
Personal life
In 2015, Ingels bought an apartment in New York's
Dumbo neighborhood.
Notable projects
: ''For a full list of projects, see
Bjarke Ingels Group#Completed projects''
*
Islands Brygge Harbour Bath, Copenhagen (completed 2003)
*
VM Houses
VM Houses is a housing project consisting of two adjacent apartment buildings in Ărestad, Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed by JDS Architects and Bjarke Ingels Group, the M House with 95 units was completed in 2004 and the V House with 114 units, i ...
, Ărestad, Copenhagen (completed 2005)
*
Mountain Dwellings, Ărestad, Copenhagen (completed 2008)
*
Danish Maritime Museum,
Helsingør
Helsingør ( , ; sv, HelsingÜr), classically known in English as Elsinore ( ), is a city in eastern Denmark. Helsingør Municipality had a population of 62,686 on 1 January 2018. Helsingør and Helsingborg in Sweden together form the northe ...
, Denmark (u/c, completion mid-2013)
*
8 House, Ărestad, Copenhagen (completed 2010)
*
Superkilen
Superkilen is a public park in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. The park is designed to bring immigrants and locals together, promoting tolerance and unity in one of Denmark's most ethnically-diverse and socially-challenged communit ...
, a public park in Copenhagen (completed 2011).
[Bonnie Fortune, "So many people lent a hand to give us parklife!"]
, ''Copenhagen Post'', 15 January 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
*
Amager Bakke, incinerator power plant and ski hill (2017 completion)
*
Europa City, Paris
*
Two World Trade Center
2 World Trade Center (2 WTC; also known as 200 Greenwich Street) is a planned skyscraper as part of the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan, New York City. It will replace the original 2 World Trade Center, which was completed in 1972 and ...
New York City, office building (On hold,
Larry Silverstein is in talks with
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...
and
21st Century Fox
Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc., doing business as 21st Century Fox (21CF), was an American multinational mass media corporation that was based in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was one of the two companies formed on June 28, 2013, fo ...
to create a joint headquarters.)
Exhibitions
* 2007 ''BIG City'',
Storefront for Art and Architecture
Storefront for Art and Architecture is an independent, non-profit art and architecture organization located in SoHo, Manhattan in New York City. The organization is committed to the advancement of innovative positions in architecture, art and desi ...
, New York
* 2009 ''Yes is More'', Danish Architecture Centre, Copenhagen
* 2010 ''Yes is More'',
CAPC, Bordeaux and WECHSELRAUM, Stuttgart
* 2015 ''Hot to Cold: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptation'',
National Building Museum
The National Building Museum is located at 401 F Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is a museum of "architecture, design, engineering, construction, and urban planning". It was created by an act of Congress in 1980, and is a private non-profit i ...
* 2019-2020
BIG presents FORMGIVING', Danish Architecture Centre, Copenhagen
Awards
: ''For a more detailed list of awards, see
Bjarke Ingels Group#Awards''
* 2001 and 2003 Henning Larsen Prize
* 2002
Nykredit Architecture Prize
* 2004 ar+d award for the Maritime Youth House
* 2004
Golden Lion for best concert hall design,
Venice Biennale of Architecture
Venice Biennale of Architecture (in Italian
Mostra di Architettura di Venezia) is an international exhibition of architecture from nations around the world, held in Venice, Italy, every other year. It was held on even years until 2018, but 202 ...
(for Stavanger Concert Hall proposal)
* 2006
Forum AID Award, Best Building in Scandinavia in 2006 (for
VM Houses
VM Houses is a housing project consisting of two adjacent apartment buildings in Ărestad, Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed by JDS Architects and Bjarke Ingels Group, the M House with 95 units was completed in 2004 and the V House with 114 units, i ...
)
* 2007 Mies van der Rohe Award Traveling Exhibition â VM Houses
* 2008
Forum AID Award for Best Building in Scandinavia in 2008 (for ''Mountain Dwellings'')
* 2009
ULI Award for Excellence (for ''Mountain Dwellings'')
* 2010
European Prize for Architecture
The European Prize for Architecture is an architecture prize awarded annually by the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture. It was established by Christian Narkiewicz-Laine, t ...
* 2011
Dreyer Honorary Award
* 2011
Danish Crown Prince Couple's Culture Prize
* 2011 French Academy of Architecture, Prix Delarue Award
* 2011 ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' Architectural Innovator of the Year Award
* 2012
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to ...
Honor Award for
8 House, deemed to elevate the quality of architectural practice.
["AIA Award 2012 for BIG's 8 House"]
, ''DAC''. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
* 2013 Den Danske Lyspris (for ''Gammel Hellerup Gymnasium'')
* 2013 International Olympic Committee Award, Gold Medal (for ''
Superkilen
Superkilen is a public park in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. The park is designed to bring immigrants and locals together, promoting tolerance and unity in one of Denmark's most ethnically-diverse and socially-challenged communit ...
'')
* 2013
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to ...
Honor Award, Regional and Urban Design (for ''
Superkilen
Superkilen is a public park in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. The park is designed to bring immigrants and locals together, promoting tolerance and unity in one of Denmark's most ethnically-diverse and socially-challenged communit ...
'')
* 2014 European Prize of Architecture Philippe Rotthier (for the ''
Danish Maritime Museum'')
* 2014 Urban Land Institute, 40 Under 40 Award
* 2015 Global
Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction, Bronze (for ''The DryLine'' resiliency project)
* 2017
C.F. Hansen Medal The C. F. Hansen Medal (Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or D ...
* 2019
The National German Sustainability Award (Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis) Honor Award,
Bibliography
* Bjarke Ingels, ''Yes is More: An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution'' (exhibition catalogue), Copenhagen, 2009,
* BIG, ''Bjarke Ingels Group Projects 2001â2010'', Design Media Publishing Ltd, 2011, 232 pages. .
* BIG, ''BIG â Bjarke Ingels Group'', Archilife, Seoul, 2010, 356 pages.
* BIG, ''BIG: Recent Project'', GA Edita, Tokyo, 2012.
* BIG,
Abitare, ''Being BIG'',
Abitare, Milan, 2012.
* BIG, Arquitectura Viva, ''AV Monograph BIG'', Arquitectura Viva, Madrid, 2013.
* BIG, Topotek & Superflex, Barbara Steiner, ''Superkilen'', Arvinius + Orfeus, Stockholm, 2013, 224 Pages.
* BIG, Bruce Peter, ''Museum in the Dock'', Arvinius + Orfeus, Stockholm, 2014, 208 pages.
* Bjarke Ingels, ''Hot to Cold: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptation'' (exhibition catalogue),
Taschen
Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen.
History
The company began as Taschen Comic ...
, New York and KĂśln, 2015, 712 pages.
References
External links
*
*
"3 warp-speed architecture tales" (TEDGlobal 2009)Bjarke Ingels design consultancyKiBiSi.com
'Yes is More' Talk at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London 2010(video)
Bjarke interviewed for Studio BananaInterview with Bjarke IngelsArchi-Ninja.com
Google Campus
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ingels, Bjarke
21st-century Danish architects
Danish company founders
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alumni
Recipients of the Eckersberg Medal
Architects from Copenhagen
Recipients of the Crown Prince Couple's Culture Prize
Recipients of the C.F. Hansen Medal
People from Gentofte Municipality
Danish expatriates in the United States
1974 births
Living people