Bjarke Ingels, who heads up the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), was in Sydney recently and did a talk at the Australian Institute of Architects, which was sponsored and organized by HASSELL. With the common design values and easy fit between BIG and HASSELL, they make a powerful team. So BIG, whose projects we have published here, visited Sydney to explore the potential for future project collaborations. More information and a video after the break.
As one commentator memorably put it, theory meets pragmatism, meets optimism in the architecture of Bjarke Ingels. All three were on display last night when he spoke at the Australian Institute of Architects in Sydney at an event sponsored by HASSELL. So were the creativity and passion he brings to a wide range of urban renewal and development projects, not just in Denmark where he originates from, but also in Europe, North America and China.
Ingels and BIG have worked on numerous urban development projects such as:
Slussen in Stockholm – a place which connects the northern and southern parts of the city and remains a centrepoint for traffic but has been turned into an urban leisure zone focused on the pedestrian.
Superkilen in Copenhagen – an innovative public park in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen, stretching 750 metres. Many of the objects in the park come from other countries that represent the ethnic diversity of the neighborhood. They include swings from Iraq, benches from Brazil, a fountain from Morocco and litter bins from England.
Ingels’ concept of ‘hedonistic sustainability’ is nowhere more evident than in one of the projects he is currently working on – a waste-to-energy plant that will have ski slopes on the roof. The unlikely combination of green energy and alpine sport was the winning bid in a competition to design a new waste-to-energy plant which aims to be one of the cleanest in the world when it opens in 2016.
