BIG founder Bjarke Ingels has delivered a TED Talk focusing on floating cities, the LEGO House, and other architectural forms of the future. Offering a worldwide tour of the firm’s projects, Ingels also elaborates on his waste-to-energy plant doubling as a ski slope, and cutting-edge flood resilience infrastructure for New York City.
The talk begins with a journey through Ingels’ most renowned projects, including his stacked social housing project in Copenhagen, his Shenzhen energy headquarters, his New York “courtscraper,” and his flood resiliency plans for Manhattan.
The predominant message of Ingels’ talk is “change,” and the need for architects and others to respond to the looming threat of climate change. Here, he reflects on the firm’s floating city developed to incorporate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, one that can produce its own power, harvest rainwater, and grow food locally.
The only constant in the universe is change. Our world is always changing, and right now, our climate is changing. No matter how critical the crisis is, and it is, this is also our collective human superpower. That we have the power to adapt to change and we have the power to give form to our future.
-Bjarke Ingels
The full talk can be found above or on the TED website here. Ingels also previously spoke to TED in 2009, and recently spoke to Louisiana Channel on his love of New York City.
