Arch Tracker

Awarding the most creative, disruptive, and influential individuals in the world today, Bjarke Ingels receives the Wall Street Journal’s first annual Innovator of the Year Award for Architecture for BIG’s wildly expressive structures, including the radical re-imagining of the New York high-rise apartment building, the commitment to sustainability and the philosophy of pragmatic utopianism. [More info after the break]
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BIG wins an invited competition to renovate and extend an existing 1960′s concrete warehouse situated in a Basel industrial district which is being transformed into an alternative Arts District. [More info and renders after the break]
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BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), Martha Schwartz Landscape, Buro Happold , Speirs & Major, Lutzenberger & Lutzenberger, and Global Cultural Asset Management are today announced as the winning team of the international design competition for a new 27.000 m2 cultural complex in Albania, consisting of a Mosque, an Islamic Centre, and a Museum of Religious Harmony.

The capital Tirana is undergoing an urban transformation which includes the restoration and refurbishment of existing buildings, the construction of a series of new public and private urban structures, and the complete reconceptualization of Scanderbeg Square. This important square is the site of the new cultural complex that will consist of a Mosque, an Islamic Centre, and a Museum of Religious Harmony.

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Project: West 57
Architect: BIG Bjarke Ingels Group
Partner in Charge: Bjarke Ingels
Location: Manhattan, New York, USA
Project Leader: Beat Schenk
Project Architect: Sören Grünert
Project Team: Thomas Christoffersen, Celine Jeanne, Daniel Sundlin, Alessandro Ronfini, Aleksander Tokarz, Alessio Valmori, Alvaro Garcia Mendive, Felicia Guldberg, Gabrielle Nadeau, Ho Kyung Lee, Julian Liang, Julianne Gola, Lucian Racovitan, Marcela Martinez, Maria Nikolova, Minjae Kim, Mitesh Dixit, Nicklas Rasch, Riccardo Mariano, Stanley Lung, Steffan Heath, Thilani Rajarathna, Xu Li
Collaborators:
Architect of Record: SLCE Architects
Landscape Architects: Starr Whitehouse
Structural: Thornton Tomasetti
MEP: Dagher Engineering
Civil: Langan Engineering
Construction Manager: Hunter Roberts
Transportation: Philip Habib & Assoc.
Building Envelope: Israel Berger & Assoc.
Marketing: Nancy Packes
Vertical Transportation: Van Deusen & Assoc.
Acoustical: Cerami & Assoc.
Wind: CPP
Environmental: AKRF
Client: Durst Fetner Residential
Size: 80.000 m2
Status: Ongoing
Renders: German Glessner

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Our friends at Studio Banana TV have shared with us their latest production, an interview with Bjarke Ingels, director of BIG.

Bjarke Ingels (born October 2, 1974 in Copenhagen) is a Danish architect. He heads the Bjarke Ingels Group which he founded in 2006. In 2009 he co-founded the design consultancy KiBiSi. In his designs, Bjarke Ingels often tries to achieve a balance between playful and practical approaches to architecture. In 2005, Bjarke Ingels opened his own office, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), after having co-founded PLOT Architects in 2001 and collaborated with Rem Koolhaas at OMA. Through a series of award-winning design projects and buildings, Bjarke Ingels has created an international reputation as a member of a new generation of architects that combines shrewd analysis, playful experimentation, social responsibility, and humor. These projects include BIH House in Ørestad and the new Danish national Maritime museum in Elsinore, hotel projects in Norway, a highrise designed in the shape of the Chinese character for ‘people’ for Shanghai, a masterplan for the redevelopment of a former naval base and oil industry wasteland into a zero-emission resort and entertainment city off the coast of Baku, Azerbaijan, shaped as the seven mountains of the country, and a museum overlooking Mexico City. Under the BIG Banner Bjarke recently published “Yes is more – an archcomic on architectural evolution”.

Bjarke Ingels, architect and head of Danish practice BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) has been announced as the 2010 laureate of the European Prize for Architecture. This prize is awarded annually by the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

Bjarke Ingles in Arch Tracker:

            
          Tek Building                       Tamayo Musueum               Tallinns New City Hall
                                                   With Rojkind Arquitectos        With Adams Kara Taylor

           
          Shenzhen International          National Library           Faroe Islands Education Center
Energy Mansion              In Astana, Kazakhstan                       With Fuglar

The European Architecture Prize, established as a collaborative effort between The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum, is to be formally presented to Bjarke Ingels at “The City and The World: Madrid Symposium” November 4-7, 2010.

On Friday, November 5, at a Gala Diner and special Award’s Ceremony, together with Colegio Oficial de Arquitecturos de Madrid, Madrid’s Mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón Jiménez will officially present Mr. Ingels with the lauris nobilis—symbolic of the European Prize.

Mr. Ingels will give a lecture preceding the dinner at 6:00PM at Centro de Turismo Colón, Plaza Colón, Madrid.

Project: TED Building
Architect: BIG
           Bjarke Ingels, Jakob Lange
Project leader: Cat Huang
Team: Gaetan Brunet, Xu Li, Alysen Hiller, Xi Chen, Espen Vik, James Schrader, Kuba Snopek, Riccardo Mariano, Johan Cool, Takuya Hosokai, Daniel Sundlin.          
Collaborators: Realities United, Arup
Location: Taiwan
Type: Competition
Client: TLDC
Size: 43,000 sq. mt.

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Short video describing the Bjarke Ingles Group entry for the Taipei TEK Entertainment Center. Video directed and produced by Brooklyn Digital.
Via: El Contexto

BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group and a team of consultants have won the largest ever commission on the Faroe Islands for a 19,200 m2 Education Center in Torshavn. In collaboration with Fuglark, Lemming & Eriksson, Sámal Johannesen, Martin E. Leo and KJ Elrad, BIG will design the new Education Center situated on a hillside on the outskirts of Torshavn, to serve as a base for coordination and future development of all educational programs in the region.

As the largest educational building project in the country’s history, the institution combines Faroe Islands Gymnasium, Torshavns Technical College and Business College of Faroe Islands in one building, housing 1,200 students and 300 teachers.

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Project: Shenzhen International Energy Mansion
Author: BIG
        Bjarke Ingels
Collaborators: Arup, Transsolar
Project Leader: Andreas Klok Pedersen
Team: Cat Huang, Alex Cozma, Fan Zhang, Kuba Snopek, Flavien Menu, Stanley Lung
Location: Shenzhen, China
Type: Invited Competition, 1st Prize
Client: Shenzhen Energy Company
Size: 96,000 sqm
Images: BIG

Copenhagen-based BIG, in collaboration with ARUP and Transsolar, was awarded the first prize in the international competition to design Shenzhen International Energy Mansion, the regional headquarters for the Shenzhen Energy Company.

Located in the center of Shenzhen, China the 96,000 square meter project will be integrated with the surrounding environment and designed to withstand the tropical climate of the city. BIG’s winning proposal was selected by the jury experts from Shenzhen Municipal Planning Bureau chaired by Alejandro Zaera-Polo and client representatives.

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BIG was recently awarded with the first prize on an open international design competition for  Kazakhstan’s new National Library in Astana.

The new building has an area of  33.000 sqm, arranged as a continuous circulation on a Möbius Strip, as the result of 2 interlocking structures: the perfect circle and the public spiral. The sections (see below) clearly show how the horizontal program shifts to a vertical configuration,  combining vertical hierarchy, horizontal connectivity and diagonal view lines. The skin, which changes from wall to roof as the strip develops. It sounds a bit complicated, but the sections and diagrams explain this pretty well, and you can get the idea on how the spaces and diagonal views relate on the renderings. In short words, a clear lineal organization (ideal for an archive, library) is mixed with an infinite loop.

“What is a library but an efficient archive of books… and a path for the public to reach them” (Thomas Christoffersen, Project Leader).

This shape also looks forward to become a symbol for the nation: “the circle, the rotunda, the arch and the yurt are merged into the form of a Moebius strip. The clarity of the circle, the courtyard of the rotunda, the gateway of the arch and the soft silhouette of the yurt are combined to create a new national monument appearing local and universal, contemporary and timeless, unique and archetypal at the same time” (Bjarke Ingels).

But once again, BIG diagram´s are way better to explain this than my words. See the diagrams, sections and renderings after the break: Leer el resto de esta entrada »

Bjarke Ingels Group and Adams Kara Taylor have won an international contest to design Tallinn’s new City Hall in Estonia.

The purpose of the international idea contest was to find the best architectural solution for the new administrative building of the city government that will be situated on a 35,000 m2 plot near the Linnahall building. The contest for the new city was met with a great interest, 81 architects and their teams were willing to present an entry. Of those, the international jury chose the best 9 to shortlist as finalists into the second phase of the competition. By May 15 the finalists handed in their final solutions. The international jury’s decision to award BIG’s entry first place in the competition was unanimous and was presided by the vice mayor Taavi Aas.

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The pavilion is a monolithic steel structure designed as a double spiral taking the visitors from the ground and through two curves up to a level of 20 metres and down again. The spiral lightly touches the ground floor, which encircles a paddling pool with the Little Mermaid in the centre.

The roof is covered in a light blue artificial material, known from Danish cycle paths. Inside, the floor also features the blue cycle path where the bikes pass through the building.

The steel of the facade is perforated in a pattern that creates the silhouette of a Danish metropolis. From the outside, the pavilion’s inner life shines through in the shape of the silhouettes of cyclists and pedestrians as they pass by.

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ARCHITECT ROJKIND ARQUITECTOS + BIG
CLIENT: PATRONATO TAMAYO
SIZE: 3.500 M2
LOCATION: MEXICO
STATUS: 1. PRIZE

Set upon a steep hillside in Atizapan on the outskirts of Mexico’s largest metropolis will soon sit the New Tamayo Museum. The building will serve as a nucleus of education and culture – locally, regionally, and internationally – and continue to carry the name of the Oaxacan born artist Rufino Tamayo (1899-1991). The very strong and symbolic shape of the cross is a direct interpretation of the client’s preliminary program studies, defining an optimized organizational scheme for the Tamayo’s visitors and administrators.

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Architects: BIG + JDS = PLOT
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
Collaborators: Plot, JDS, MOE & Brodsgaard
Client: Hopfner A/S, Dansk Olie Kompagni A/S
Contractor: Hopfner A/S
Program: 230 Apartments
Construction period: 2004 – 2005
Total Area: 25000 sqm
Photography: BIG & JDS

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