BIG: The Latest Architecture and News

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.

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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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.