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 ...

Ørestad Ørestad () is a developing city area in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the island of Amager. The area was developed using the new town concept, closely linked with the M1 line of the Copenhagen Metro. Economically, income for the plan would be genera ...

Mountain Dwellings Mountain Dwellings ( da, Bjerget) is a building in the Ørestad district of Copenhagen, Denmark, consisting of apartments above a multi-story car park. The building was designed by the Danish architectural practicPLOTBjarke Ingels Group, which grew to a staff of 400 by 2015, with noted projects including the

8 House 8 House ( da, 8 Tallet), also known as Big House, is a large mixed-use development built in the shape of a figure 8 on the southern perimeter of the new suburb of Ørestad in Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed by Bjarke Ingels, founding partner of the ...

housing complex,

VIA 57 West VIA 57 West (marketed as VIΛ 57WEST) is a residential building located at 625 West 57th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. The pyramid shaped tower block or "tetrahedron", designed by the Dan ...

in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, 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 park, and the Amager Resource Center (ARC) waste-to-energy plant – the latter which incorporates both a ski slope and climbing wall on the building exterior. Since 2009, Ingels has won numerous

architectural competitions An architectural design competition is a type of design competition in which an organization that intends on constructing a new building invites architects to submit design proposals. The winning design is usually chosen by an independent panel o ...

. He moved to New York City in 2012, where in addition to the

VIA 57 West VIA 57 West (marketed as VIΛ 57WEST) is a residential building located at 625 West 57th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. The pyramid shaped tower block or "tetrahedron", designed by the Dan ...

, 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, ...

'' 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 ci ...

, and returned to Copenhagen to receive his diploma in 1999."Barje Ingels: The European Prize for Architecture"
''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

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 Manhatt ...

Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) is the architecture school of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. It is regarded as an important and highly prestigious architecture school.

, and most recently, the

Yale School of Architecture The Yale School of Architecture (YSOA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University, and is generally considered to be one of the best architecture schools in the United States. The School awards the degrees of Master of Arc ...

.

Career

1998–2005

From 1998 to 2001, Ingels worked for Rem Koolhaas at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture 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 Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

. In 2001, he returned to Copenhagen to set up the architectural practice PLOT together with

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

OMA colleague

Julien de Smedt Julien De Smedt (born 1975 in Brussels, Belgium) is the founder and director of JDS Architects based in Brussels, Copenhagen, Belo Horizonte and Shanghai. Projects include the VM Housing Complex, the Mountain Dwellings, the Maritime Youth House ...

. 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, Norway."Ingels to Address NSAD Students on Feb. 25 at the Museum of Natural History in San Diego"
, ''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 front with special facilities for children in 2003. They also completed Maritime Youth House, a sailing club and a youth house at Sundby Harbour, Copenhagen. The first major achievement for PLOT was the award-winning VM Houses in

Ørestad Ørestad () is a developing city area in Copenhagen, Denmark, on the island of Amager. The area was developed using the new town concept, closely linked with the M1 line of the Copenhagen Metro. Economically, income for the plan would be genera ...

, Copenhagen, in 2005. Inspired by Le Corbusier's Unité 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 The Forum AID Award was a Nordic architecture and design award, given annually by the Swedish magazine Forum AID. AID is an acronym for the three subject-matters of the magazine - Architecture, Interior design and Design - and it is also the three ...

for the best building in Scandinavia in 2006. Ingels lived in the complex until 2008 when he moved into the adjacent

Mountain Dwellings Mountain Dwellings ( da, Bjerget) is a building in the Ørestad district of Copenhagen, Denmark, consisting of apartments above a multi-story car park. The building was designed by the Danish architectural practicPLOT In 2005, Ingels also completed the Helsingør Psychiatric Hospital in

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; sv, Helsingör), 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.

2006–2008

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 Mountain Dwellings ( da, Bjerget) is a building in the Ørestad district of Copenhagen, Denmark, consisting of apartments above a multi-story car park. The building was designed by the Danish architectural practicPLOT 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 Verner Panton (13 February 1926 – 5 September 1998) is considered one of Denmark's most influential 20th-century furniture and interior designers. During his career, he created innovative and futuristic designs in a variety of materials, especi ...

, 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 In computer graphics, rasterisation (British English) or rasterization (American English) is the task of taking an image described in a vector graphics format (shapes) and converting it into a raster image (a series of pixels, dots or lines, whic ...

image of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetic languages, Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is List of highest mountains on Earth, Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border ru ...

. 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 The Forum AID Award was a Nordic architecture and design award, given annually by the Swedish magazine Forum AID. AID is an acronym for the three subject-matters of the magazine - Architecture, Interior design and Design - and it is also the three ...

(2009) and the

MIPIM MIPIM (in French, Le Marché International des Professionnels de L’immobilier) 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. T ...

(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." Ørestaden 8-tallet2

Their third housing project,

8 House 8 House ( da, 8 Tallet), also known as Big House, is a large mixed-use development built in the shape of a figure 8 on the southern perimeter of the new suburb of Ørestad in Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed by Bjarke Ingels, founding partner of the ...

, 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 Ørestad, 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 2001–2010."Jacob Slevin, "10 Best Architecture Moments of 2001–2010"
''Huffington Post'', 23 December 2010. Retrieved 12 October 2012. Helsingør New Maritime Museum

In 2007, Ingels exhibited at the Storefront for Art and Architecture 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 Un ...

and was commissioned to design the

Danish Maritime Museum The M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark ( da, M/S Museet for Søfart) is a maritime museum located in Helsingør, Denmark. Established in 1915, its collections cover Danish trade and shipping from the 15th century to the present day. The museum was o ...

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 UNE ...

. 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" into ...

, Alectia 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.

2009–present: 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 t ...

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. In 2009, Ingels designed the new National Library of Kazakhstan 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 Tilting may refer to: * Tilt (camera), a cinematographic technique * Tilting at windmills, an English idiom * Tilting theory, an algebra theory * Exponential tilting, a probability distribution shifting technique * Tilting three-wheeler, a vehicle ...

in the Huaxi district of Guiyang, 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 in

Tórshavn Tórshavn (; 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, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

. 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 México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

, and converting an oil industry wasteland into a

zero-emission Zero emission refers to an engine, motor, process, or other energy source, that emits no waste products that pollute the environment or disrupt the climate. Zero emission engines Vehicles and other mobile machinery used for transport (over land, se ...

resort on

Zira Island Boyuk Zira (Böyük Zirə), 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 followin ...

off the coast of Baku,

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), 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 t ...

. 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 '' Amagerforbrænding'' 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, πυραμίς ') 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, quadrilat ...

-like apartment building on

West 57th Street 57th Street is a broad thoroughfare in the New York City borough of Manhattan, one of the major two-way, east-west streets in the borough's grid. As with Manhattan's other "crosstown" streets, it is divided into its east and west sections at ...

, a collaboration with real estate developer

Durst Fetner Residential Durst is an Italian manufacturer of photographic printing equipment. History Established in 1936 by two brothers, Julius and Gilbert Durst, who were enthusiasts in the field of photography, encouraged by their mother, who was also a keen photo ...

. 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 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 spann ...

. 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, and permanent and deployable floodwalls north of East 14th Street. BIG designed the Lego House that began construction in 2014 in

Billund, Denmark Billund () is a town in Jutland, Denmark. It is the home of the Lego Group head office. It is also the site of a theme park, Legoland, waterpark resort, Lalandia, and Billund Airport which is the second largest airport in Denmark. The airport ...

. 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." 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 The M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark ( da, M/S Museet for Søfart) is a maritime museum located in Helsingør, Denmark. Established in 1915, its collections cover Danish trade and shipping from the 15th century to the present day. The museum was o ...

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 ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

. 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 — 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 the ...

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 Jens Martin Skibsted (born 28 June 1970) is a Danish designer, entrepreneur and author. He is a partner aManyone A/S He has founded or co-founded companies such as Biomega, Skibsted Ideation, Actics, KiBiSi and Ogojiii. He has won several intern ...

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, storytelling, 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 ...

, and accompanied by an exhibition of the same name at the National Building Museum in

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

The book featured well known projects such as VIA ( West 57th),

Amager Bakke Amager Bakke (Amager Hill), also known as Amager Slope or Copenhill, is a combined heat and power waste-to-energy plant and recreational facility in Amager, Copenhagen Denmark, located prominently within view of the city's downtown. The facility ...

,

8 House 8 House ( da, 8 Tallet), also known as Big House, is a large mixed-use development built in the shape of a figure 8 on the southern perimeter of the new suburb of Ørestad in Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed by Bjarke Ingels, founding partner of the ...

, Gammel Hellerup High School, Superkilen, The Lego House and the

Danish Maritime Museum The M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark ( da, M/S Museet for Søfart) is a maritime museum located in Helsingør, Denmark. Established in 1915, its collections cover Danish trade and shipping from the 15th century to the present day. The museum was o ...

, 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 Holcim is a Swiss-based global building materials and aggregates flagship division of the Holcim Group. The original company was merged on 10 July 2015 with Lafarge to form LafargeHolcim as the new company and renamed to Holcim Group in 202 ...

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 Kohler Co., founded in 1873 by John Michael Kohler, is an American manufacturing company based in Kohler, Wisconsin. Kohler is best known for its plumbing products, but the company also manufactures furniture, cabinetry, tile, engines, and ...

, 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'', a documentary film by Kaspar Astrup Schröder that explores parkour 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 fi ...

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 – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism ...

'' 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 The Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) was a cultural institute for architecture and urban development, which comprised a museum, an archive plus library and a platform for lectures and debates. The NAI was established in 1988 and was ba ...

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 – social, cultural, economical and political – 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 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 exte ...

, 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 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), Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made pub ...

, 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, Ørestad, Copenhagen (completed 2005) *

Mountain Dwellings Mountain Dwellings ( da, Bjerget) is a building in the Ørestad district of Copenhagen, Denmark, consisting of apartments above a multi-story car park. The building was designed by the Danish architectural practicPLOT Danish Maritime Museum The M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark ( da, M/S Museet for Søfart) is a maritime museum located in Helsingør, Denmark. Established in 1915, its collections cover Danish trade and shipping from the 15th century to the present day. The museum was o ...

,

Helsingør Helsingør ( , ; sv, Helsingör), 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 8 House ( da, 8 Tallet), also known as Big House, is a large mixed-use development built in the shape of a figure 8 on the southern perimeter of the new suburb of Ørestad in Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed by Bjarke Ingels, founding partner of the ...

, Ørestad, Copenhagen (completed 2010) * Superkilen, 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 Amager Bakke (Amager Hill), also known as Amager Slope or Copenhill, is a combined heat and power waste-to-energy plant and recreational facility in Amager, Copenhagen Denmark, located prominently within view of the city's downtown. The facility ...

, incinerator power plant and ski hill (2017 completion) *

Europa City EuropaCity was a French planned development outside Paris, initially scheduled to open in 2027. It was a joint project by the French real estate company Immochan and the Chinese investment company Dalian Wanda. It was introduced to the public as a ...

, 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 Larry A. Silverstein (born May 30, 1931) is an American businessman. Among his real estate projects, he is the developer of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City, as well as one of New York's tallest resident ...

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 New ...

and 21st Century Fox to create a joint headquarters.) BIG Yes Is More exhibition at DAC 2009

Exhibitions

* 2007 ''BIG City'', Storefront for Art and Architecture, 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 * 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 The Nykredit Architecture Prize is the largest Danish architecture prize. Founded by the Nykredit Foundation (an arm of the Nykredit Group), it is awarded annually to a person, or group of people, who have personally, or through their work, made a ...

* 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 The Forum AID Award was a Nordic architecture and design award, given annually by the Swedish magazine Forum AID. AID is an acronym for the three subject-matters of the magazine - Architecture, Interior design and Design - and it is also the three ...

, Best Building in Scandinavia in 2006 (for VM Houses) * 2007 Mies van der Rohe Award Traveling Exhibition – VM Houses * 2008

Forum AID Award The Forum AID Award was a Nordic architecture and design award, given annually by the Swedish magazine Forum AID. AID is an acronym for the three subject-matters of the magazine - Architecture, Interior design and Design - and it is also the three ...

for Best Building in Scandinavia in 2008 (for ''Mountain Dwellings'') * 2009 ULI Award for Excellence (for ''Mountain Dwellings'') * 2010 European Prize for Architecture * 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 su ...

Honor Award for

8 House 8 House ( da, 8 Tallet), also known as Big House, is a large mixed-use development built in the shape of a figure 8 on the southern perimeter of the new suburb of Ørestad in Copenhagen, Denmark. Designed by Bjarke Ingels, founding partner of the ...

, 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'') * 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 su ...

Honor Award, Regional and Urban Design (for '' Superkilen'') * 2014 European Prize of Architecture Philippe Rotthier (for the ''

Danish Maritime Museum The M/S Maritime Museum of Denmark ( da, M/S Museet for Søfart) is a maritime museum located in Helsingør, Denmark. Established in 1915, its collections cover Danish trade and shipping from the 15th century to the present day. The museum was o ...

'') * 2014 Urban Land Institute, 40 Under 40 Award * 2015 Global

Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction The Holcim Awards is an international competition that seeks projects and visionary concepts in sustainable construction – irrespective of scale. A total of USD $2 million in prize money is awarded in each three-year cycle. Eligible for en ...

, Bronze (for ''The DryLine'' resiliency project) * 2017 C.F. Hansen Medal * 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 2001–2010'', Design Media Publishing Ltd, 2011, 232 pages. . * BIG, ''BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group'', Archilife, Seoul, 2010, 356 pages. * BIG, ''BIG: Recent Project'', GA Edita, Tokyo, 2012. * BIG,

Abitare ''Abitare'', published monthly in Milan, Italy, is one of the world's best known design magazines. It was first published in 1961. History and profile ''Abitare'' was launched in Milan in 1961 by Piera Peroni. The magazine was published monthly. ...

, ''Being BIG'',

Abitare ''Abitare'', published monthly in Milan, Italy, is one of the world's best known design magazines. It was first published in 1961. History and profile ''Abitare'' was launched in Milan in 1961 by Piera Peroni. The magazine was published monthly. ...

, 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 Comics, ...

, New York and Köln, 2015, 712 pages.

References

External links

* *
"3 warp-speed architecture tales" (TEDGlobal 2009)

Bjarke Ingels design consultancy
KiBiSi.com
'Yes is More' Talk at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), London 2010
(video)
Bjarke interviewed for Studio Banana

Interview with Bjarke Ingels
Archi-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