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Bjarke Ingels Group: The Latest Architecture and News

OMA, BIG, and UNStudio Among Prominent Firms to Reveal Visions for Landmark Melbourne Southbank

A prominent shortlist including BIG, OMA, and UNStudio have revealed their visions for Melbourne’s landmark Southbank Precinct overhaul. The $2 billion project will be the largest single-phase project in the history of Victoria, Australia, intended as “a state-of-the-art, mixed-use environment” to be “centered around innovation in architecture and design.”

The six shortlisted schemes include twisting towers, interlocking blocks, and stacked neighborhoods, all focusing on the 6,000-square-meter BMW Southbank site. The designs were revealed at a public symposium on July 27th featuring speakers from the shortlisted firms.

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BIG's LEGO House has its own "Block-Buster" Netflix Documentary

The LEGO House by Bjarke Ingels Group now has its own Netflix documentary. Taking viewers on a journey through the conception, design, construction, and opening of the LEGO House, the documentary offers an insight into the challenges faced throughout the process, and the thoughts and reflections of the project’s key contributors, including Bjarke Ingels.

“LEGO House – Home of the Brick” offers the most thorough insight yet into the scheme’s creation, detailing major early construction issues, delays, and (spoiler alert!) the ultimate successful completion of one of the most iconic pieces of architecture created in recent years. The documentary dives into the history of the LEGO brand, the vision, and importance placed on the LEGO House by the company’s directors, and perhaps most interestingly, a series of interviews with Bjarke Ingels in which he reflects on the role of LEGO in the development of his own career.

These BIG-Inspired Posters Highlight the Evolving “Syntax” in Architecture

These BIG-Inspired Posters Highlight the Evolving “Syntax” in Architecture - Image 1 of 4
Courtesy of Giuseppe Gallo via Mirabilia

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has a knack for combatting a variety of complex issues via its step-by-step approach, yielding a design that seems almost inevitable. Ingels has labeled his design strategy as a form of “architectural alchemy." This combines multiple programs or “ingredients” that on their own, would simply be seen as “normal." But in aggregate, you get more out of the mix than you would keeping them separate. The result of this looks something like a waste-to-energy plant topped by a ski-slope, or a parabolic skyscraper with a Copenhagen-style courtyard.

Inspired by BIG’s “will to find new solutions for environmental, social, economic and technological problems”, artist Giuseppe Gallo has designed these 9 posters that evaluate BIG’s unique use of syntax.

More on syntax in architecture and how you can get your own copies of the posters after the break.

BIG Unveils Images of Zig-Zag Ski Hotel in Switzerland

BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group has unveiled images of their proposed Audemars Piguet Hotel des Horlogers, a ski hotel set in the scenic Vallée de Joux, Switzerland. The compact scheme, designed in collaboration with Cche Architecture, is defined by a zig-zag form seamlessly integrated into the smooth topography of the surrounding valley, forming a connection with the nearly Musée Atelier.

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The Waterfall / BIG + Cobe

Danish firm COBE has released images of their proposed aquatic center in Copenhagen Harbor, a scheme entered for a design competition which was won by Kengo Kuma. The proposal, designed in collaboration with Bjarke Ingles Group (BIG), formed part of COBE’s competition-winning masterplan for Paper Island, which was chosen for development in 2016.

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Lessons From the Latest Bjarke Ingels Documentary: Don’t Let Your Next Building Be Your Last

What if the one thing that makes BIG "BIG" was suddenly stripped away right at the apex of its potential? That's the question posed by the trailer for Kaspar Astrup Schrøder’s documentary BIG TIME, which ominously illustrated a possible problem with Bjarke Ingels’ health.

Schrøder's documentary highlights the intense journey of Bjarke Ingels, the founder of Bjarke Ingels Group, through the past few years of his life. This unique insight into what exactly it's like to be an architect on top of the world ultimately poses a question that needs to be answered by anyone seeking to reshape the world through design. How do you handle the responsibility of forming the future you want to live in?

Michel Rojkind and Bjarke Ingels Describe the Recently Opened Foro Boca

The official inauguration for Foro Boca by Rojkind Arquitectos was held in Veracruz, México, gathering members of the local community as well as special guest Bjarke Ingels for a concert by renowned violinist Joshua Bell and the city's Philarmonic Orchestra.

BIG Changes on the Horizon for Bjarke Ingels and His Firm

“The greatest thing about being an architect,” pronounced Bjarke Ingels, “is that you build buildings.”

Meet the World’s Smallest and Most Stylish Smartlock by BIG and Friday Labs

BIG has teamed up with Friday Labs to create the Friday Lock, “the world’s smallest smartlock.” Through the Friday app, users can unlock their doors wirelessly, as well as automatically as they leave or approach.

As an access-granted user’s phone approaches the system, the door unlocks automatically. Access can be easily granted, as well as revoked through the app, allowing for temporary users, as well as to remove access if a phone is stolen.

BIG's LEGO House Tops Out, Gets September Opening Date

The BIG-designed LEGO House has topped out and is headed toward completion ahead of its just-announced grand opening date on September 28. Located near LEGO’s corporate campus, in the heart of Billund, Denmark, the LEGO experience center will provide an estimated 250,000 yearly guests with a variety of LEGO-themed activities within its 12,000 square meters, inviting visitors of all ages to play and unleash their creativity.

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RB Systems Proposes Cutting-Edge Hyperloop Station

Earlier this year, Hyperloop One announced a list of design partners that included Aecom, Arup, and Bjarke Ingels Group. Now, RB Systems—which was a finalist in the SpaceX Hyperloop One Pod Competition—has released a speculative design vision for a Hyperloop station and passenger pod. The spatial and programmatic concepts are largely experimental, as there are no precedents for this futuristic building typology.

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How Bjarke Ingels Is Making a Power Plant One of Denmark's Most Exciting Public Spaces

During the IV International Congress in Pamplona, organized by the Architecture and Society Foundation, we had the opportunity to speak with Bjarke Ingels about his approach to theme "Architecture: Climate Change." The founder of BIG told us about the importance of clean technology and how these technologies must be integrated into architecture. He asserts that new industrial projects must also break from traditional paradigms and question established concepts in order to be reintegrated into communities as clean, attractive and multi-use spaces. Ingels suggests that clean technologies holds exciting possibilities for public spaces.

A+U 548: BIG + SMALL

From the Publisher. The May 2016 issue of a+u is a special issue dedicated to recent works by BIGBjarke Ingels Group.

The team is engaged with projects both large and small in locations all over the world. The issue reflects that diversity, with the first half devoted to the large, urban-scale works for which the practice is best known, and the second half devoted to smaller works, including residences and a pavilion. Including those nearing completion, 20 of the 22 projects introduced here are currently underway. Over the next few years, we will see many more of their works finished.

The Top Five Installations of Salone del Mobile 2016

With the 2016 Salone del Mobile now behind us, Romanian photographer Laurian Ghinitoiu has shared his photos from Milan Design Week, along with his ranking of the top five architectural installations. Read on to see his exceptional collection of images accompanied by short descriptions of each project.

Gallery: BIG's VIA 57WEST Photographed by Laurian Ghinitoiu

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VIA 57WEST / BIG. Image © Laurian Ghinitoiu

Photographer Laurian Ghinitoiu has captured the latest photos of BIG's courtscraper, VIA 57WEST. Exploring the urban context of this unconventional high-rise, the images illustrate how the building's swooping facade and peak appear from different sight lines.

For more on BIG's courtscraper and the firm's boundary-pushing design philosophy, check out this New York Times video or this gallery of under-construction photos.

BIG Redskins Stadium Designed for More Than Just Football

BIG has revealed their concept for the Redskins new stadium complex. Complete with a moat, the semi-transparent, undulating structure was designed to redefine the American stadium. Rather than being (mostly) preserved for game-day, BIG envisions the stadium to be a year-round destination used for more than just football.

“The stadium is designed as much for the tailgating, like the pre-game, as for the game itself,” Bjarke Ingels said on 60 Minutes. “Tailgating literally becomes a picnic in a park. It can actually make the stadium a more lively destination throughout the year without ruining the turf for the football game.”

5 Major Practices Shortlisted to Expand Buffalo's Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Five major firms have been shortlisted for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery's $80 million expansion in Buffalo, New York. Chosen for their "design intellect" and ability to collaborate, the competing firms will envision ways to expand the gallery's exhibition space and create a new public urban area that maximizes the site's potential, as the Albright-Knox campus is located on the edge of Delaware Park - one of Frederick Law Olmsted’s major works.

“The selection of the architects reflects that malleability, because none of them has a fingerprint style,” Albright-Knox director Janne Sirén said. “All of them, almost, specialize in an ability to build for a given context.”

The five practices include:

BIG to Design Champs-Élysées Flagship for Galeries Lafayette

French department chain Galeries Lafayette has commissioned BIG to design its new flagship on Paris' historic Avenue des Champs-Élysées. BIG's first retail client, Galeries Lafayette hopes to position the project "as an upmarket department store for the 21st century" that will "endow the legendary boulevard with renewed cachet," according to a report on Business of Fashion.

Sited for 52 Champs-Élysées, the 7000-square-meter space will take its inspiration from the historic Art Deco building its housed in. As BIG described, they hope to enhance that space and respect the existing architecture, rather than radically transform it.