Architecture firm based in Copenhagen
BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group |
| Type | Architectural practice |
|---|
| Industry | architecture, urbanism, interior design, landscape design, product design, research and development |
|---|
| Founded | 2005 |
|---|
| Founder | Bjarke Ingels  |
|---|
| Headquarters | |
|---|
Key people | - Bjarke Ingels (Founder and Creative Partner)
- Andreas Klok Pedersen, Beat Schenk, Brian Yang, Daniel Sundlin, David Zahle, Finn Norkjaer, Jakob Lange, Jakob Sand, Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Sheela Maini Sogaard, Thomas Christoffersen, Giulia Frittoli, Daria Pahhota, Andy Young, Lorenzo Boddi, Catherine Huang, Ole Elkjaer-Larsen, Agustin Perez-Torres, Martin Voelkle, Leon Rost, Douglass Alligood, Joao Albuquerque (Partners)
|
|---|
Number of employees | 600 |
|---|
| Website | www.big.dk |
|---|
Bjarke Ingels Group, often referred to as BIG, is a Copenhagen and New York City-based group of architects, designers and builders operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research and development. The office is currently involved in a large number of projects throughout Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. As of 2021, the company employs 600 people.[2]
History
Bjarke Ingels and Julien De Smedt established the company PLOT in Copenhagen in January 2001, as a focus for their architectural practice. Ingels established BIG in late 2005 after he and De Smedt closed down PLOT. This drew acclaim for its first completed commission, the Mountain, a residential project in Copenhagen which had been started by PLOT. Over the next couple of years, BIG's projects included a waste-to-energy plant which doubles as a ski-slope in Copenhagen, Denmark, the West 57th Street mixed-use tower in midtown Manhattan for Durst Fetner Residential, the National Art Gallery of Greenland in Nuuk, the headquarters for the Shenzhen Energy Company in Shenzhen, and the Kimball Art Center in Utah.
In 2009 a plan was mooted for turning Boyuk Zira Island into a carbon-neutral eco-resort and recreation centre with a profile based on Azerbaijan's seven best-known peaks. The cost of the project, known as "The dream island", by Danish architects Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), would have been around two billion US dollars.
In December 2009, the company's partnership was expanded to include Thomas Christoffersen, Jakob Lange, Finn Nørkjaer, Andreas Klok Pedersen, David Zahle, CEO Sheela Maini Søgaard, and Kai-Uwe Bergmann.[3] In 2010, they opened a branch office in New York City, where they were commissioned to design the VIA 57 West courtscraper for Durst Fetner Residential.[4]
At a lecture at the Royal Academy in July 2015, BIG proposed turning the Battersea Power Station in London into "the world's tallest Tesla coils."[5]
In 2015, BIG added four new partners: Beat Schenk and Daniel Sundlin in New York and Brian Yang and Jakob Sand in Copenhagen.
In May 2016, BIG partnered with Hyperloop One, Deutsche Bahn, and SYSTRA to develop a test of the high-speed, low friction Hyperloop concept.[6]
In March 2017, BIG signed a lease for an office in the Brooklyn neighborhood Dumbo, keeping its Manhattan office at the same time.[7] The firm, then 250 people in Manhattan's financial district, all moved to Dumbo.[8]
After an Instagram post showing that 11 of 12 partners at BIG were men, BIG CEO Sheela Maini Sogaard defend the firm's gender balance and stated they had created a "pipeline of diverse talent" that would eventually be "trickling up" into the partner group.[9]
In March 2018, BIG was named as the first high-profile architecture firm to be commissioned to design a public structure in Albania,[10] specifically the replacement building for the aging National Theatre of Albania.[10] Plans to demolish and replace the old national theater with a building by BIG resulted in the National Theatre Protest in Albania in 2019,[11] as the old building was considered historic.[12][13][14] The demolition on 17 May 2020 resulted in continued protests and detainment of protestors by authorities.
[15]
The company has met with criticism for designing for repressive regimes.[16][17] The firm in 2019 designed renderings for Wildflower Studios, Robert De Niro's movie studio in Queens, New York.[18]
BIG released a revision of its design proposal for the new Oakland Ballpark in February 2019, retaining its rooftop park with community access[19] and developing "3.3 million square feet of housing, 1.5 million square feet of commercial and office space, a hotel and a performance center in the area surrounding the stadium."[20] They've also worked on zoo enclosures.[21] It was building a city layout for Toyota in January 2020, to replace a former factory site near Mount Fuji.[22] In February 2020, BIG took its first sofa design commission, for a Danish furniture company.[23]
In July 2021, BIG added seven additional partners for a total of 24: Andy Young, Lorenzo Boddi, João Albuquerque, Douglass Alligood, Lars Larsen, Giulia Frittoli, and Daria Pahhota.[2]
In 2022, construction concluded on two Quito-based projects designed by BIG and Moshe Safdie's firm Safdie Architects. Commissioned by Quito developer Uribe Schwarzkopf, the neighboring towers known as Qorner and Iqon rise 24 and 32 floors respectively.[24]
Divisions
BIG IDEAS Lab
Launched in 2014, the division is part R&D lab, part incubator for BIG design concepts that can be spun off into independent products or companies.
The lab was founded to build the steam-ring generator for the Amager Bakke – the Copenhagen power plant with a ski slope on its roof – which will "puff" every time it emits a tonne of carbon dioxide.[25] It is now working on numerous BIG collaborations and spin-off projects, including a smart internet-connected lock named Friday,[26] "a company that creates water from super-efficient dehumidification", and Urban Rigger[27] – floating student housing for coastal cities built from repurposed shipping containers. The first are scheduled to be built in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2016.[28]
Other projects include Fingerprint Façade,[29] Window Garden, and a gigantic Tesla coil for the Battersea Power Station in London.[30]
