Bjarke Ingels
Traveling the globe for the love of architecture and design just seems right
I looked back at a whole bunch of writing, doodles and love notes I did years ago.
I am finding some gems, some unpublished delights and some very questionable short stories I wrote whilst in Maputo (capital of Mozambique) was under some kind of coup and I had to stay put in a rather lovely five star hotel waiting for it to be safe to fly back out. I had coconuts and seafood stews, and spent my days just pen to paper…
And it is exactly 12 years ago that I interviewed Bjarke Ingles for a story. Now he’s one of the starchitects of the universe - and rightfully so. So yes some of the projects are old, and yes I was waiting for Hillary to win but his mind was so fascinating it’s worth sharing…
But when we met - which happened on a precarious little bush plane flying to Singita in Kruger, South Africa. We literally sat elbows and knees attached, laughing and being like silly school boys. I don’t fangirl much, but he absolutely inspired me to dream and to travel all over the world for architecture and design. So I felt like you should get to read the interview and if you’re not familiar with his work, now you can sniff it out all over the world as I do.
A new project in Toronto
Bjarke Ingels, very young, very bright and 30-something, is the 2006 founding architect of BIG (big.dk) with offices in New York and Copenhagen. But it is his boy-next-door; goodie-two shoes looks and vague naughty schoolboy glint that has captured the design world. A self professed mermaid abductor and aspiring comic book artist, the young Dane has thrilled the rather stiff-upper-lip architecture world with new work that feels for once truly organic and newfangled with his now global brand BIG.
So I wonder, could he be the younger, sexier Mick Jagger of Architecture?
In 2009, The Architectural Review said that Ingels and BIG "has abandoned 20th-century Danish modernism to explore the more fertile world of bigness and baroque eccentricity” and that is the crux of how BIG has been able to create such interesting and inventive work. A step away from the expect-to-find modernism that has plagued Scandinavian designers in the last decade as desires for bolder, more daredevil work is prevalent.
There have also been the accolades stacking up, Wall Street Journal’s Innovator of the Year and calling him “rapidly becoming one of the design world's rising stars", part of the Top 100 Most Creative People in Design from Fast Company, there is also a Golden Lion from the Venice Biennale, two National AIA Awards, the World Architecture Festival Housing Award, a Forum Aid Award and then the MIPIM Residential Development Award and of course the multiple teaching opportunities at Harvard, Yale and Columbia universities and not to forget that Bjarke is a frequent speakers at WIRED, TED, WIRED, the World Economic Forum and Google’s Zeitgeist. BIG’s been busy and so has the man himself, but somehow he remains humble and driven.
Bjarke, with his deep dreamy thoughts and tousled hair, believes that “contemporary life constantly evolves and changes, not least due to the influence from multicultural exchange, global economic flows and communication technologies that all together require new ways of architectural and urban organization”. And it is with this fervor that the TED speaker thrilled audiences at the conference in Edinburgh. Bjarke is seen talking about his zeal for what he does and also showcases BIG’s playful designs that include a factory chimney that blows smoke rings and a ski slope built on top of a waste processing plant. In another TED talk Bjarke discusses buildings that not only look like nature, but behave like nature too: blocking the wind, collecting the sun’s rays and creating breathtaking views. It’s no wonder that he’s had millions of hits on the TED website and is considered a TED rock star.
In South Africa, the favorite at the yearly Design Indaba conference on design and sustainability was of course Mr. Ingles again. His apparent natural swagger and lighthearted way of explaining ideas with serious gravitas gave a reason for conference attendees and the African design world to sit upright. He has also been having a few moments on film, as Ingels was cast in “My Playground”, a documentary film by Kaspar Astrup Schröder, that explores extreme sports like parkour and freerunning, with much of the action taking place on and around BIG projects. Perhaps the next documentary will be Bjarke as an action hero saving the planet from badly designed buildings? We’ll have to see. He’s not quitting his day job just yet.
But his career trajectory has always gone swimmingly. In 1998, Ingels worked for the prolific Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam. After some serious mentoring from the famous workhorse Ingels opened his own practice in Copenhagen. Winning a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, with Belgian compatriot Julien de Smedt, and completing a series of open-air swimming pools on the Copenhagen Harbourfront just propelled the diehard Dane more. And so the story continues as the ambitious well-spoken Bjarke is given the treatment all over the world – with open arms it seems.
But the first real big gain for Bjarke was the award-winning VM Houses in Ørestad, Copenhagen. Inspired by Le Corbusier, a Swiss then French architect, they designed two residential blocks in the shape of the letters V and M. The M house with 95 units and the V house with 115 units. According to BIG, the designs took into account daylight, privacy and views and through its diagonal shapes managed to create great greenery views. This project, a very non-Scandinavian boring design, gave them the Forum AID Award for best building in Scandinavia: in 2006 already. Bjarke, a believer in his work, even lived in the building for a few years.
Most recently BIG has been selected to design the Smithsonian Institution Master Plan in Washington D.C, USA – not a bad day for a small design firm. This serves as a great honor to be part of a team of talented designers, masterful engineers and forward thinkers to reconsider this historic campus, the world’s largest museum and the famous research complex. Bjarke describes this to be a “humbling challenge” and explains their task to be “exploring the collections with The Smithsonian and together attempt to untie the Gordian Knot of intertwined collections to unearth the full potential of this treasure chamber of artifacts”. BIG seeks to reinstall the original Castle as a proverbial red carpet for visitors and resurface the now obscured Central Garden as a striking grand entrance. A perfect place for a high riser like Bjarke to come show off his skill: the big capital where even Obama, and maybe Hillary next, will have to take note of their neighbors.
And in Paris, BIG outcompeted some barking competition, including the poignant French Valode & Pistre and Manuelle Gautrand Architecture firms, to secure an enormous mixed-use development. Conceptualized by the Auchan Group, this project is a 200-acre ring-shaped project that will be in the busy Ile-de-France area. Some of the features include a wave like green roof that will double up as leisure greenery. This roof will also provide insulation, treat gray water for irrigation and capture for the “micro-ville”.
“The park-topped, transit-connected experimental complex will include a mix of urbanism and landscape design,” says Bjarke. And there are also spaces for retail, hotels, offices, museums, exhibitions, nightclubs, restaurants, pools, urban farms, even hiking trails and waste heat-powered spas, artificial ski slopes and the pièce de résistance: an aquarium. “The project will be centered upon the defining theme of the European urban experience, diversity and culture” BIG said. Building will commence in 2017 and it will take a long four years to complete.
So with all this happening and so much more in the proverbial pipeline the charmer Bjarke Ingels makes time for WINQ to discuss life, love, work, the universe, who is sharing his bed with and even his first book “Yes Is More: An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution” that catalogues 30 of his projects in comic book form.
What is design for you today?
BI: Design and architecture is the art and science of making sure that the world fits with the way we want to live. Since the world we inhabit is so extensively man-made – we don’t only have the skills and the means but also the responsibility to continuously adapt and improve our physical surroundings to the way we want to live our lives.
And what would you say is the difference between design and architecture? If you believe there to be a difference at all.
BI: In Danish the common-verb for both design and architecture is ‘formgivning’ literally form-giving - and so assigning form and shape to physical objects or environments. I guess (landscape and building) architects design environments for human life and all the other designers (fashion, product, graphics etc.) populate those environments with content.
You’ve been called the “rock star of architecture” by some of the critics and by the many fans. Tell me what you think about that.
BI: I wish!
Your website BIG.DK has made more than just me smile. Tell me about the playfulness in your personality that allows for fun in your industry that can be traditionally rather dry.
BI: Honestly no Dane ever thought about anything comical about .dk – as it is the international abbreviation for Denmark. So it was only when I moved to New York that I started getting comments on the thought provoking nature of our URL. I guess it only works in our favor since everybody knows that we are innocent and that the perversion is in the mind of the receiver of course.
You wanted to be a cartoonist, or comic book designer, when you were growing up. How do you incorporate that into your work today?
BI: I love stories and visual communication and to not only use words but also graphics and layout to communicate complex issues in the most blatant and intuitive way! I guess ‘Yes is More’ – our Archicomic – an architectural monograph in the form of a graphic novel is where we have come the closest to realizing my initial ambition of graphic storytelling.
With the legend Oscar Niemeyer’s death last year the world has been refocused on his work quite a lot. How do you see his work, his opinions and his legacy?
BI: He brought the Latino spirit to rational functional modernism. A more playful hedonistic and tropical interpretation of the otherwise rigorous and straight laced international style. At BIG we always attempt to merge need and desire in designs that are as playful as they are hard working: like for instance a power plant with a ski-slope on the roof would be a good example.
How much does American architect, and “father of skyscrapers”, Louis Sullivan’s “form follows function” dictum influence you?
BI: Each situation has a different set of key-parameters. I think sometimes function is indeed the most crucial criteria and other times it is the material, the climate, the context, the landscape, the neighbors, the solar orientation, the budget, the identity, the visual impact, the noise-scape or a myriad of other factors. The true challenge is to identify what is the biggest problem or potential in each case and to let that knowledge inform your design decisions rather than applying the same recipe in each case without proper analysis or thorough reflection.
How was it to work for the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam? Tell me some cute story about working there.
BI: The first design I proposed for a part of the Seattle Public Library Rem was instantly nicknamed the Scandinavian Pleasure dome. He said – he couldn’t help it – I am Danish after all!
Give me your thoughts on the controversial One World Trade Center (Freedom Tower) in New York.
BI: Our client Douglas Durst, for the Durst Pyramid, is building it so I’ve had the pleasure to visit the roof deck while it is still under construction. I honestly like the generic quality of the two square towers merged into a single shape.
Where is architecture heading in the future - not just the trends but also much more existentially for you or the world?
BI: I think we are heading towards designing cities like man-made ecosystems. Places where the distinction between city and landscape, and by implication architecture and nature, blur and fuse into a new hybrid notion will become more important.
Architecture seems to be all about space at the moment. Micro living, co-creating and shared living as more people move to urban areas than ever before. What do you think about that and how does that play a role in your life and your work?
BI: At the same time the statistics show that we get more and more space per person as societies evolve. So the trend isn’t really clear yet. I think we are seeing that cities become increasingly inhabitable – piers become parks, pedestrian streets, bicycle lanes, elevated parks on former train tracks are transforming my native New York into a better place to live every day.
What inspires you every day?
BI: Human society, nature, technology, evolution, facts and fiction.
What are you reading at the moment whether it is on Kindle, iPad or good old paper format?
BI: “Zero History” by American-Canadian William Gibson. He is one of the few authors where I’ve read every word he has written and I would kill for “The Winds of Winter” but George RR is just so insanely slow!
Who’s in bed with you currently?
BI: The future Mrs. Ingels.
Do you ever want a conventional life – I mean marriage, kids, the white picket fence and the whole entire thing?
BI: I know I’ve found the mother of my children but when it comes to making children we haven’t gotten beyond practice yet.
Tell me about your favorite moment in a day – if there is just one.
BI: I have almost no habits. So I honestly can never predict what moment will be the peak of the day. I tend to laugh and smile a lot. In Danish you say, “Intelligent people are never bored”.
You are splitting time between Europe and New York now with your duo offices. How do you manage all the traveling and to have a life?
BI: I am never an insomniac – so between New York and Copenhagen I have no trouble adjusting. And both places feel like home to me.
Your mother was a dentist. So how are your teeth?
BI: Still there – thanks to her!
So you seem to be a bit of an honorary gay icon in the design world. Congratulations.
BI: Ha! A great honor indeed.
Doing interesting, and grand projects, is part of the fun for Bjarke and so here he discusses two of the most interesting new projects BIG has worked on:
The Grove at Grand Bay, Coconut Grove, Miami, United States
An enormous residential project, just a hop away from downtown Miami, is where the new Grove project will stand in its 58 900 square meter capacity and will on completion seek LEED certification Silver designation – a first for a Coconut Grove structure. Rising 20 floors above the bay, the property will highlight the panoramic views with floor to ceiling windows and elaborate on indigenous elements as an evolution of the local condominium architecture. This is that true indoor-outdoor living solution that gives a nod to the famous Florida weather.
Maritime Museum, Helsingor, Denmark
To be able to make something new and thrilling out of an abandoned dry dock was the first challenge: a cavernous space that will be home to the new museum. BIG slightly bent the rules of the competition and placed the museum on the periphery of the dry dock walls to act as both a reinforcing structure and a façade. So the museum is now a continuous ramp performing a “loop de loop” around the dry dock walls. The fun part is that a gentle slope, corresponding to water running off a bathroom floor, will be incorporated. So for instance even though the earth is round, one’s perception is that it is flat. And when sailing the ocean one experiences a geometric paradox. So a visitor will walk the entire length of the museum and then innocently arrive at the starting point – just a level beneath.
Sustainability, for BIG in particular, is a huge focus and has influenced the way they approach all their projects. Bjarke chats about three of BIG’s sustainable design projects:
8 house for St Frederikslund Holding, Ørestad, Denmark
The 8 house offers homes in all its bearings for people in all of life’s stages: the young and the old, nuclear families and singles, families that grow and families that become smaller. The bow-shaped building creates two distinct spaces, separated by the center of the bow that hosts the communal facilities. The apartments are placed at the top while the commercial program unfolds at the base of the building. As a result, the different horizontal layers have achieved a quality of their own: the apartments benefit from the view, sunlight and fresh air, while the office leases merge with life on the street. The building also won the Best Residential Building at the 2011 World Architecture Festival, and the Huffington Post included 8 House as one of the "10 Best Architecture Moments of 2001–2010”.
West 57th for Durst Fetner Residential, Manhattan, New York, United States
West 57th, aiming for LEED Gold certification, occupies a full city block at the corner of West 57th Street and the West Side Highway. The project introduces a new building typology to Manhattan - the building is an urban dune that peaks at the northeast corner, thereby both maximizing the number of apartments facing the water and preserving views. The shared green space at heart of the block is derived from the classic Copenhagen ‘urban oasis’ and serves as a vertical extension of the activity and energy of the Hudson River Park.
A new waste treatment plant for Amagerforbraending, Copenhagen, Denmark
A new breed of waste-to-energy plant, one that is economically, environmentally, and socially profitable and situated just outside the center of Copenhagen in an industrial area. Completion is set for 2016 for visitors and the residents of the Danish capital. Instead of considering Amagerforbraending as an isolated object, mobilizing the architecture and intensifying the relationship between the building and the city and thus expanding the existing activities in the area by turning the roof of the new Amagerforbraending into a ski slope for the citizens of Copenhagen. The roof will be ecological and usable all year round, upending the convention of the energy intensive indoor or alpine ski resort. When completed, the new facility will for at least another 25 years be able to treat approximately 500,000 tons of waste annually, corresponding to approximately 10% of all residual waste in Denmark. The facility will be able to supply low-carbon heat and electricity to 140,000 households in the metropolis.
To read more about Bjarke, and his BIG brand, follow him @BjarkeIngels or visit the cheeky website big.dk.