Students have settled in at Glasir – Tórshavn College, the 19,200m2 vortex-shaped education center that combines three schools under one roof – the Faroe Islands Gymnasium, Tórshavn Technical College and the Business College – serving over 1,750 students, teachers and support staff.

“Inspired by the dramatic Faroese topography, Glasir is designed like a landscape for learning: the central space of the school is conceived as a topographical interpretation of the natural landscape — a continuous terraced terrain with steps and staircases that connect across several levels and merge the multistory building into a single entity. Each institution wraps around the space and radiates out into the landscape. In time, the autonomous parts – tailored for their respective uses – will merge into a true hybrid educational institution that doesn’t distinguish between academic and manual skills, but focuses on providing each individual with the most potent possible combo of abstract ideas and concrete skills.” Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Creative Director, BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.

In Vancouver, Bjarke Ingels presented a series of works that showed how designing for change is the only constant, how a mountain of trash can be a mountain for skiing and how floating cities can be our future. While in Denmark, BIG Partner Jakob Lange presented a new Martian vernacular architecture to TEDxOdense, unpacking an entire new ecosystem & settlement on Mars that – along the way – can help us gain the knowledge to become better custodians of Planet Earth. Stay tuned for the link to the full TedTalk!

Designed in collaboration with Artemide, our Gople Lamp is named a 2019 AZ Awards finalist and People’s Choice candidate, following 1,175 entries submitted from 50 countries. Vote for the horticultural lamp in the Lighting Fixture category by May 3rd here.

HAV is a new porcelain collection created by KiBiSi, a design collective between (Ki) Kilo Design, (Bi) BIG and (Si) Skibsted Ideation. Named after the Danish word for ‘ocean’, the multi-functional collection HAV is designed for Royal Copenhagen and takes inspiration from the Danish seas.

BIG, Goody Clancy and Isenberg School of Management celebrate the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new copper-clad Business Innovation Hub at the heart of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The extension adds 70,000SF of hyper-collaborative study and social space to one of the top-30 public business schools in the United States.

“The new Business Innovation Hub at the Isenberg School of Management is conceived as an extension of both the building and the campus mall. The linear structure is bent to form a full loop framing an internal courtyard for the life of the students. The façade is pulled away in a domino effect to create a generous invitation from the Haigis Mall to the Learning Commons. The mall and the courtyard – inside and outside form a forum for the students, the faculty and the profession to meet, mingle and mix society and academia.” Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Creative Director, BIG.

BIG explores the possibility of transforming aging infrastructure into an urban opportunity with the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE). Built by Robert Moses in the 1950s, the triple-cantilever structure along Brooklyn Heights shows signs of corrosion and aging. BIG proposes an integrated solution of turning the BQ-Expressway into a BQ-Park, to save the revered Brooklyn Heights Promenade from closing for six years while rehab work is completed on the highway, and to turn the triple-stacked road into a multi-tiered green space. BIG’s structural approach and one-time construction of the new roadway aims to create a more feasible and less costly solution for reconstruction of the BQE, while delivering far more benefits to the community. With this proposal, we hope to build on the great work already being undertaken by many to think proactively about our urban future – and look forward to working with the Brooklyn community to find the best solutions for the BQE’s future! Join BIG, Brooklyn Heights Association and A Better Way for the town hall meeting on Wednesday, April 3 at 7pm in Plymouth Church to view the presentation.

BIG Partner Brian Yang presented Shenzhen Energy HQ at this year’s CTBUH Tall + Urban Innovation Conference. The 96,000m2 office development for the state-owned Shenzhen Energy Company is named the overall winner for the category, Best Tall Building 200-299m. The CTBUH Annual Awards program recognizes projects that have made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of tall buildings and the urban environment, and that achieve sustainability at the highest and broadest level.

Join BIG Partner Catherine Huang at this year’s AIA Europe Conference, focusing on the theme of Livability in Copenhagen. Catherine will speak at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation on Friday, April 12 at 3.30pm on the topic of Women in Architecture: Turning Designers into Leaders. The conversation will be joined by panelists from Schmidt Hammer Lassen, 3XN, Henning Larsen and Effekt. RSVP to the conference here.

Today, our inaugural project in Amsterdam launches into construction in the new residential neighborhood of IJburg. Designed by BIG and Barcode architects, the 46,000m2 Sluishuis residence will include 442 apartments poised directly above the IJ Lake. Sluishuis’ characteristic shape slopes towards the low-rise buildings of IJburg on one side, and rises to form the gateway into the historic city center on the port side. Sluishuis is expected to complete in 2020, and plans to provide enough energy to supply its own residents with heat and electricity.

6 out of 57 international teams are shortlisted to compete in the anonymous competition for the extension of the Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao. Located in the city’s Doña Casilda Iturrizar park, the brief calls for a renovation and extension adding a total of 8,000m2 to the existing neoclassical structure.