BIG was recently awarded with the first prize on an open international design competition for  Kazakhstan’s new National Library in Astana.

The new building has an area of  33.000 sqm, arranged as a continuous circulation on a Möbius Strip, as the result of 2 interlocking structures: the perfect circle and the public spiral. The sections (see below) clearly show how the horizontal program shifts to a vertical configuration,  combining vertical hierarchy, horizontal connectivity and diagonal view lines. The skin, which changes from wall to roof as the strip develops. It sounds a bit complicated, but the sections and diagrams explain this pretty well, and you can get the idea on how the spaces and diagonal views relate on the renderings. In short words, a clear lineal organization (ideal for an archive, library) is mixed with an infinite loop.

“What is a library but an efficient archive of books… and a path for the public to reach them” (Thomas Christoffersen, Project Leader)

This shape also looks forward to become a symbol for the nation: “the circle, the rotunda, the arch and the yurt are merged into the form of a Moebius strip. The clarity of the circle, the courtyard of the rotunda, the gateway of the arch and the soft silhouette of the yurt are combined to create a new national monument appearing local and universal, contemporary and timeless, unique and archetypal at the same time” (Bjarke Ingels).

But once again, BIG diagram´s are way better to explain this than my words. See the diagrams, sections and renderings after the break:
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Housing projects, a new City Hall for an Estonian city, a master plan for an island and the Danish Pavillion for Shanghai Expo 2010 are just some of the enormous variety of projects designed by BIG. Check them out on our first Round Up of the week.

Denmark Pavillion for Shanghai Expo 2010
In my opinion Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG, is one of the best architects when it comes to give shape to the interests of an “unspoken” client on public buildings,either representing the values of a country or a culture. All with exceptional syntax and presentation skills. And BIG’s latest project (in collaboration with Arup and 2+1), the Danish Pavilion for the Shanghai 2010 Expo, does it again (read more…)

Zira Island Carbon Neutral Master Plan
Carbon Neutral master plans are being adopted in several countries, in times when energy and emissions are becoming very important. And that´s exactly what Azerbaijan will do to develop Zira Island on the Caspian Sea, located in the bay of the capital city Baku. The master plan was developed with danish BIG Architects and Ramboll engineers, with an architectural proposal based upon the country’s dramatic natural setting (read more…)

Mountain Dwellings
How do you combine the splendours of the suburban backyard with the social intensity of urban density? The Mountain Dwellings are the 2nd generation of the VM Houses. The program, however, is 2/3 parking and 1/3 living. What if the parking area became the base upon which to place terraced housing – like a concrete hillside covered by a thin layer of housing, cascading from the 11th floor to the street edge? (read more…)

Kaufhauskanal Metrozone (with Topotek1)
The IBA Hamburg is a building exhibition which is running in Hamburg until 2013 and has as its mission to develop solutions for the future of the metropolis. One in a long line of building exhibitions held throughout Germany which also included the 1927 Weißenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart which showed the latest developments in architecture and house construction (read more…)

Tallinn’s new City Hall
An international idea competition was held for Tallinn’s new City Hall in Estonia and the best concept was presented by the Bjarke Ingels Group from Denmark together with Adams Kara Taylor of the UK. The purpose of the international idea contest was to find the best architectural solution for the new administrative building of the city government that will be situated on a 35,000 m2 plot near the Linnahall building (read more…)

UPDATE: Thanks to your comments, BIG sent us the drawings and diagrams of the project. Check them out in the gallery!

An international idea competition was held for Tallinn’s new City Hall in Estonia and the best concept was presented by the Bjarke Ingels Group from Denmark together with Adams Kara Taylor of the UK.

The purpose of the international idea contest was to find the best architectural solution for the new administrative building of the city government that will be situated on a 35,000 m2 plot near the Linnahall building. The contest for the new city was met with a great interest, 81 architects and their teams were willing to present an entry. Of those, the international jury chose the best 9 to shortlist as finalists into the second phase of the competition. By May 15 the finalists handed in their final solutions. The international jury’s decision to award BIG’s entry first place in the competition was unanimous and was presided by the vice mayor Taavi Aas.

More images after the break. read more »

Architects: Rojkind Arquitectos + BIG
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Client: Patronato Tamayo
Constructed Area: 3,500 sqm
BIG Architects
Partners in Charge: Bjarke Ingels & Andreas Klok Pedersen
Project Team: Pauline Lavie, Maxime Enrico, Pål Arnulf Trodahl
Rojkind Arquitectos
Partner in Charge: Michel Rojkind
Project Team: Agustín Pereyra, Monica Orozco, Ma. Fernanda Gómez, Tere Levy, Isaac Smeke, Juan José Barrios, Roberto Gil Will, Beatriz Díaz, Joe Tarr
Structural Engineer: 
Romo y asociados
Landscape Design: 
Entorno taller de paisaje
Graphic Design: 
Ernesto Moncada
Images:
 Glessner Group – Germán Glessner

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Architects: BIG Architects
Landscape Architects: Topotek1
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Partner in Charge: Bjarke Ingels
Project Leader: Ole Schrøder
Collaborators: Mitarbeiter – Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Oana Simionescu, Christian Alvarez Gomez, Alex Cozma, Karsten Hammer Hansen, Todd Bennett, Gabrielle Nadeau, Frederik Lyng, Ole Storjohann, Hanna Johansson, Sebastian Latz
Topotek1 team: Martin Rein-Cano, Lorenz Dexler, Anna Lundquist, Christian Bohne, Lisa Oregioni, Alexandre Mellier, Danielle Choi, Karoline Liedtke
Client: IBA Hamburg
Project year: 2013
Constructed Area: 33,350 sqm

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Architects: BIG Architects
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Partner in Charge: Bjarke Ingles for BIG, Julien De Smedt for JDS
Project Architect: Jakob Lange
Project Leader: Finn Nørkjær
Project Manager: Jan Borgstrøm
Construction Manager: Henrick Poulsen
Contributors: Annette Jensen, Dariusz Bojarski, Dennis Rasmussen, Eva Hviid-Nielsen, Joao Vieira Costa, Jørn Jensen, Karsten V. Vestergaard, Karsten Hammer Hansen, Leon Rost, Louise Steffensen, Malte Rosenquist, Mia Frederiksen, Ole Elkjær-Larsen, Ole Nannberg, Roberto Rosales Salazar, Rong Bin, Sophus Søbye, Søren Lambertsen, Wataru Tanaka
Collaborators: JDS/JULIEN DE SMEDT ARCHITECTS, Moe & Brødsgaard, Freddy Madsen Rådgivende Ingeniører ApS
Client: Høpfner A/S
Engineering: Moe & Brodsgaard
Construction: DS Elcobyg A/S /PH Montage
Project year: 2008
Constructed Area: 33,000 sqm
Photographs: Dragor Luft, Jacob Boserup, Jens Lindhe, Ulrik Jantzen

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Architects: PLOT = BIG + JDS
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Client: Sjakket Youth Club, Realdania
Partner in Charge: Bjarke Ingels
Collaborator: Julien De Smedt
Project Leader: Sophus Søbye
Project Architect: Sophus Søbye
Contributors: Bo Benzon, Christian Dam, David Zahle, Julie Schmidt-Nielsen, Kathrin Gimmel, Louise Steffensen, Mia Frederiksen, Nanna Gyldholm Møller, Nina Ter-Borch, Ole Elkjær-Larsen, Ole Nannberg, Olmo Ahlmann, Søren Lambertsen
Constructed Area: 2,000 sqm
Project year: 2007
Budget: US $3,880,000
Photographs: Vegar Moen

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MAD recently organized a collaborative masterplanning project in South West China. Ten young international architects were invited to take part in an urban experiment, to design a new city centre on a scenic natural site close to the city of Guiyang. The participating architects were: Atelier Manferdini (USA), BIG (DENMARK), Dieguez Fridman (ARGENTINA), EMERGENT/Tom Wiscombe (USA), HouLiang Architecture (CHINA), JDS (DENMARK/BELGIUM), MAD (CHINA), Mass Studies (KOREA), Rojkind Arquitectos (MEXICO), Serie (UK/INDIA), Sou Fujimoto Architects (JAPAN).

Seen on designboom.

Images after the break. read more »

With the exhibition “Yes is more”, the Danish Architecture Centre zooms in on BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group. Using unconventional approaches, humour, and international focus, BIG has contributed to the renewal of the Danish architectural tradition.

The first solo exhibition by BIG, will go from February 21 till May 31, in the Danish Architecture Centre on Strandgade 27B, DK-1401, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Fore more information, you can go the official website here.

Carbon Neutral master plans are being adopted in several countries, in times when energy and emissions are becoming very important.

And that´s exactly what Azerbaijan will do to develop  Zira Island on the Caspian Sea,  located in the bay of the capital city Baku. The master plan was developed with danish BIG Architects and Ramboll engineers, with an architectural proposal  based upon the country’s dramatic natural setting.

In the words of Bjarke Ingels, the proposal for Zira Island [...] is an architectural landscape based on the natural landscape of Azerbaijan. This new architecture not only recreates the iconic silhouettes of the seven peaks, but more importantly creates an autonomous ecosystem where the flow of air, water, heat and energy are channeled in almost natural ways. A mountain creates biotopes and eco-niches, it channels water and stores heat, it provides viewpoints and valleys, access and shelter. The Seven Peaks of Azerbaijan are not only metaphors, but actual living models of the mountainous ecosystems of Azerbaijan.

This mountain concept may sound strange, but BIG has developed this in the past as you can see on Mountain Dwellings.

As you can see on the images (and on a video below), this urbanized peaks that Bjarke describes are derived from the geometry of famous mountains in the country, and each peak becomes a unit of private and public mixed uses. The result is an organic skyline that merges buildings with the natural topography of the island. Among the peaks, there´s a public central valley that connects a series of private resort villages and the beaches. Also, a public trekking path connects the mountains and allows the visitors to scale up to the top.  It also includes  300 private villas that take advantage of their setting with panoramic views out over the Caspian Sea.

But the main highlight of this masterplan was to make the Zira Island completly independent of external resources, achieved through the mix of traditional Azerbaijani building tradition and new technologies. The aim is to provide a high-end living wiht a minimum usage of the resources.

This strategy includes several aspects:
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Architects: PLOT = BIG + JDS
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Client: Kvaterloft Copenhagen, Loa Fund
Collaborator: JDS ARCHITECTS, BIRCH & KROGBOE
Constructed Area: 2,000 sqm
Project year: 2004
Budget: US $1,950,000
Photographs: Julien de Smedt, Mads Hilmer, Esben Bruun, Paolo Rosselli

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Architects: PLOT = BIG + JDS
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Partner in Charge: Bjarke Ingels
Project Leader: Finn Nørkjær
Project Architect: Jakob Møller
Contributors: Christian Finderup, Henning Stüben, Ingrid Serritslev, Marc Jay
Collaborator: JDS, CC DESIGN
Constructed Area: 2,500 sqm
Project year: 2003
Budget: US $787,000
Photographs: BIG, Casper Dalhoff, Esben Bruun, Hanne Fuglbjerg, JDS

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Parkour is a sport on which you have to go from one point of the city to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, overcoming any obstacles in your way: walls, fences, trees, etc. This has made Parkour THE urban sport, included in recent pop culture music videos.

Danish film maker Kaspar Astrup Schröder is currently finishing MY PLAYGROUND, a documentary on movement, tricking, freerunning and parkour, and its relation with the urban spaces. This documentary will features scenes with parkour masters Team Jiyo and interviews with urban planners, local politicians, architects and philosophers.

The trailer uses the Mountain Dwellings by BIG as playground for the traceurs. The film is expected to be premiered in the summer of 2009.

Mark Magazine is by far one of my favourite architecture magazines. Their motto “Another architecture” tells us what we´ll find inside: fresh architecture – the main reason we love this magazine so much.

This bimonthly magazine is structured in 5 sections: Noticeboard (a collage of new projects), Cross Section (short articles on new buildings and architectural subjects), Viewpoint (interviews with architects on the rise), Long Section (in depth articles on buildings) and Service Area (new building materials).

On the August/September issue (October one on the mail, more about that soon) we find an amazing house by spanish studio Ensamble, shown on a collage with embossed textures, something that has become a signature on Mark Magazine covers.

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In  my opinion Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG, is one of the best architects when it comes to give shape to the interests of an “unspoken” client on public buildings,either representing the values of a country or a culture. All with exceptional syntax and presentation skills.

And BIG‘s latest project (in collaboration with Arup and 2+1), the Danish Pavilion for the Shanghai 2010 Expo, does it again, by taking the best of living in Copenhagen and placing it on China for visitors to experience.

Basically, the pavilion is a big loop on which visitors ride around on one of the 1,500 bikes available at the entrance, a chance to experience the Danish urban way. At the center of the pavilion there’s a big pool with fresh water from Copenhagen’s harbor, on which visitors can even swim.

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Right next to their VM Housing project, BIG is currently finishing their new project: Mountain Dwellings. But this time, the client asked for a specific program with 2/3 parking and 1/3 living. Rather than doing 2 separate buildings, BIG decided to combine the splendours of the suburban backyard with the social intensity of urban density, resulting on a terraced housing over the parking area.

read more »

Architects: BIG + JDS = PLOT
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Collaborators: Plot, JDS, MOE & Brodsgaard
Client: Hopfner A/S, Dansk Olie Kompagni A/S
Contractor: Hopfner A/S
Program: 230 Apartments
Construction period: 2004 – 2005
Total Area: 25000 sqm
Photography: BIG & JDS

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