BIG | Bjarke Ingels Group

Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art

SUZHOU, CHINA

Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art

SUZHOU, CHINA

2024

CLIENT

Suzhou Harmony Development Group Co. Ltd

TYPOLOGY

Culture

SIZE M2/FT2

60,000 / 646,000

STATUS

IN CONSTRUCTION

Located on the Jinji Lake in Suzhou, the 60,000 m2 Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art is conceived as a village of 12 pavilions, offering a modern interpretation of the elements that have defined the city’s urbanism, architecture, and landscape.

Designed as a reimagination of the traditional garden ‘lang’, 廊 – a line that traces a path – the museum spaces frame gardens and coalesce as pavilions. The design of the museum showcases Suzhou’s Garden tradition as part of the exhibitions, taking visitors on a journey and exploration of art, nature, and water. The museum is scheduled for completion in 2025.

The museum’s main design element is the ribbon of the roof, which extends into a pattern of eaves that double as sheltered walkways through the site. Knots in the thread of walkways frame pavilions, and as a result, the museum’s architecture entwines through the landscape, tying water to land, city to nature, and people to history. The draping walkways further extend out into Jinji Lake, which can be regarded from above while on the Suzhou Ferris wheel.

SITE PARAMETERS — Sitting along the shore of the Jinji Lake, the site occupies a large area of 310 x 200 meters.

PATHWAYS — The site is defined by a series of paths, giving access to the Suzhou Ferris Wheel and the lakeside.

SUGGESTED PROGRAM — The suggested program as a two-story building with the three main functions gathered under one roof.

PROGRAM SPLIT — The volume is rotated and separated into three individual buildings occupying the site surrounding the Ferris Wheel.

LIFE BETWEEN THE BUILDINGS — Splitting the functions into smaller pavilions, garden space and plazas are created in-between the volumes for visitors to meander along.

COVERED PATHWAYS — Covered pathways connect the pavilions, while also framing gardens between the pavilion and along the lakeside.

Arriving at the museum, the visitor will be met by an expansive, welcoming plaza in front of the Visitor Centre and main entrance. From here, visitors will be able to proceed with their visit inside or along the exterior, through the gardens and to the waterfront.

The museum’s landscaping acts as a public space to the front of Jinji Lake through a series of interconnected gardens, ensuring a rich public realm surrounding the museum. Sculptures by contemporary artists will offer Suzhou’s citizens a cultural experience outside the museum’s opening hours. The individual gardens will gradually change from mineral to green to finally water-themed planting, as the visitors move towards the waterfront.

Our design for the Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art is conceived as a Chinese garden of pavilions and courtyards. Individual pavilions are woven together by glazed galleries and porticoes, creating a network of interconnected sculpture courtyards and exhibition spaces. Weaving between the Ferris wheel legs, the museum branches out like a rhizome, connecting the city to the lake. The result is a manmade maze of plants and artworks to get lost within. Its nodular logic only becomes distinctly discernible when viewed from the gondolas above. Against the open space of the lake, the gentle catenary curvature of the roofs forms a graceful silhouette on the waterfront. Viewed from above, the stainless roof tiles form a true fifth facade.

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group

Four of the museum’s pavilions comprise the main gallery experience of the Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art, and the five remaining feature a multifunction hall for events and lectures, a theater, restaurant, and grand entrance.

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Defined by sloping roof eaves, each pavilion’s façade is made of rippled and curved glass, as well as warm-toned stainless steel that reflects the garden colors. The pavilions are connected above- and underground via bridges and tunnels, offering the museum flexibility to plan exhibition flow according to seasons and exhibited art pieces. The paths leading through the site will be covered with natural stone.

The Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art Museum follows the Chinese sustainability certification, GBEL Green Star 2, including both technical and social approaches to sustainability.

The Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art is a tribute to the rich garden heritage of Suzhou. We envision the '廊,' a traditional element of Suzhou gardens, gracefully winding through the landscapes and transforming into pavilions. In doing so, it frames the contemporary gardens, making them an integral part of the exhibition, as significant as the artwork within.

Catherine Huang — Partner, BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group

The Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art was recognized as a national landmark in China in June 2024, when it was featured on an official postage stamp issued by China Post to celebrate the successful development of Suzhou Industrial Park and the urban landscape around Jinji Lake.

Landscaping in renderings is conceptual and will differ from the final design.

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Bjarke Ingels Finn Nørkjær Catherine Huang Ole Elkjær-Larsen Haochen Yu Zhonghan Huang Aileen Koh Amanda Lima Soares Da Cunha Andrea Hektor Athena Morella Bjarke Koch-Ørvad Christian Vang Madsen Eddie Can Filip Fot Cris Guoyu Liu Molly Hsiao Rou Huang Izabella Banas Jakub Kulisa Jan Magasanik Jonathan Russell Kekoa Charlot Mathis Paul Gebauer Matteo Pavanello Miles Treacy Paula Domka Shu Du Tyrone Cobcroft Xavier Thanki Andreas Bak Narisara Ladawal Schröder Maria Capuozzo Federico Martínez De Sola Monereo Filippo Cartapani Yihan Liu Yanis Amasri Sierra Alicia De Nobrega Desislava Georgieva Zuzana Faskova Tim Christensen Julia Wilkosz Will Chuanrui Yu Riad Tabbara Phoebe Cowen Cristina Minguela Oliver Steen Jiawen Huang Jurica Pajic Alexander Gale Heiede Janis Bronka Konstantinos Koutsoupakis Thomas Lejeune Tseng-Hsuan Wei Adele Scampoli Romain Thijsen Yingying Guan Ingrid Albina Oliva Lampa Chih-Han Chen Sol Anaid Chacon Levin Philip Kaefer Jana Semaan Megan Nhat Xuan Dang Pei Huang Jonathan Christian Chin Jens Max Jensen Jesús Fernández Fraile Huiyao Fu Kannan Selvaraj Tarek Shater Arda Çinçin Zahra Khademi Tomasz Jakubowski Jason Cheuk Hei Lee Todor Todorov Rusev Jiaqi Yang

COLLABORATORS

ARTS Group Co. Ltd. [中衡设计集团股份有限公司]
Front Inc.
Shanghai Shuishi Landscape Design Co. Ltd. [上海水石景观环境设计有限公司]
Rdesign International Lighting [上海瑞逸环境设计有限公司]
BIG Landscape
BIG Engineering

University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design

KANSAS, UNITED STATES

University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design

KANSAS, UNITED STATES

2024

CLIENT

University of Kansas

TYPOLOGY

Education

SIZE M2/FT2

16,598 / 178,663

STATUS

IN DESIGN

Designed in direct response to the needs and wishes of the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design’s 1,300+ students, faculty and board, the new mass timber building for learning and collaboration, titled the “Makers’ KUbe” consolidates all architecture and design programs into three interconnected buildings, tying together the existing Marvin Hall from 1908, Chalmers Hall from 1978 and the new six-story Makers’ KUbe. The adjacent Marvin Hall’s stone façade and beloved spaces will be historically preserved while Chalmers Hall will be renovated to bring in more daylight. The campus seeks to embody four primary principles: to become an emblem of creativity; to create a connected campus hub; to be innovative and future-proof; and to showcase environmental stewardship.

“We are excited to partner with BIG and BNIM for this generational opportunity to reimagine our home in the heart of this historic campus. From their exceptionally comprehensive response to our submission call and throughout the design process, BIG’s willingness to both listen to us and push us has conceived a project that celebrates our history and embodies the ambitious optimism that animates our academic mission.”

Mahbub Rashid — Dean, University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design

The Makers’ KUbe is a 50,000-sq-ft mass timber cube structure that will serve as a teaching tool, showcasing sustainable practices through its mass timber diagrid design. The KUbe’s distinct frame – engineered by structural engineer StructureCraft – is optimized to reduce material and curtail carbon-intensive concrete. Inspired by traditional Japanese joinery techniques, the building’s structure uses tight-fit dowels and notched glulam – or glued laminated timber – to create an all-wood structure with columns and beams that run diagonally, without steel plates or fasteners.

The stripped back façade – a timber structure enclosed in glass – foregoes cladding and finishing, exposing the KUbe’s MEP systems and further proving the building’s ability to remain minimal and efficient, only using what is necessary. The mix of transparent and opaque insulated glass on the exterior showcases the school’s creativity to the entire University of Kansas campus while creating moments of privacy and reducing glare. The building’s enclosure includes natural fiber thermal insulation in the form of biodegradable HempWool, which is exposed within the facade’s shadow boxes for improved thermal performance.

CONSOLIDATE + ROTATE — Architecture and design studios and classrooms are consolidated into Marvin Hall, Chalmers Hall and the Makers' KUbe. The KUbe is rotated to align with Wescoe Drive and surrounding buildings.

CONTEXTUAL HEIGHT — The KUbe is brought to a height of 6 stories, making it contextual among the adjacent buildings and a perfect cube.

CHAMFER CORNERS — The structure's corners are chamfered, creating inviting covered entries on L1 and accessible terraces on L6.

BUILDING FRAMES OUTDOOR SPACE — Inviting outdoor gathering spaces and connected pathways lead to entrances on all sides of the building.

CONTINUOUS CIRCULATION LOOP — The KUbe connects to Chalmers Hall and Marvin Hall on the second floor via the revitalized Winter Garden bridges, creating a continuous loop between the three buildings.

SUSTAINABILITY SHOWCASE — Three strategies for sustainable architecture are showcased, including preserving and updating Marvin Hall; extending the life and livability of Chalmers Hall with minimal intervention; and building a new mass timber, low-carbon structure.

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN — Marvin Hall, Chalmers Hall and the Makers' KUbe make up the University of Kansas's new campus for the School of Architecture & Design.

“Our KU School of Architecture & Design masterplan preserves the school's heritage buildings while keeping them relevant for the 21st century; extends the life and livability of the existing buildings with minimal intervention; and builds a new structure with low-carbon solutions. These programs not only showcase the next chapter of our profession, but they will also inspire the designers of tomorrow to envision a sustainable future.”

Thomas Christoffersen — Partner, BIG

The KUbe’s massing is rotated to align with Wescoe Drive and the surrounding buildings to allow for more light and air to be brought into the existing buildings. Winter garden bridges located on the KUbe’s second floor connect it to Marvin Hall and Chalmers Hall, providing easy circulation between buildings in the colder months and enhancing interactions among students and faculty. The KUbe’s ground-level corners are angled inward, creating inviting canopied entrances that connect the building to the surrounding open spaces, while the upper–level corners are set back to allow for accessible terraces open to the sky, providing generous views of the campus and the city.

“Our design for the consolidated design studios at KU seeks to deploy all aspects of the profession in three distinct interventions: preservation, adaptation and new construction. The Makers' KUbe is conceived as a showcase in timber tectonics, traditional joinery, robotic manufacturing and sustainable materials. The timber bones of the building are exposed by stripping away all applied finishes - elevating structure to expression. A single staircase doubling as convenience stairs above and fire stairs within ties all student spaces together from park to attic. The building serves as a living curriculum, revealing all function, technology and structure as tangible elements for the students to appreciate and critique - learning solidified into built form.”

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

MAKERS' KUbe — The Makers’ KUbe is a 6-story 50,000-square-foot mass timber cube structure.

SCHOOL CONNECTION — Bridges on L2 connect to Chalmers Hall and Marvin Hall's studios and classrooms.

SPIRAL OF VOIDS — Three double height voids spiral up the building.

CORE SIZE MINIMIZED — A fire-rated self-supporting egress tube has a convenience stair on top. This feature allows the core to be smaller, maximizing the open floorplan for studios.

STRUCTURALLY OPTIMAL FACADE — Mass timber columns are sized based on the load requirements. An 'X' shape shows eliminated diagonals.

VISIBLE INSULATION IN SHADOWBOX — The vision glass mega-panel facade improves thermal performance in cold climates using insulated glass units. Double height spaces are completely transparent.

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN MAKERS' KUbe — The Makers' KUbe is a new mass timber building for learning and collaboration on the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design campus.

Embodying the university’s values, the proposed campus for the school preserves and adapts existing spaces while utilizing timber to minimize its carbon footprint. The Makers’ KUbe and Chalmers Hall feature rooftops with photovoltaic panels to harvest energy for the buildings. Any rainwater accumulated on the KUbe’s roof is stored and used for irrigating the site’s landscaping, which features native species that further reduce water needs.

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Bjarke Ingels Thomas Christoffersen Leon Rost Alana Goldweit Dominyka Voelkle Margaret Tyrpa Tara Abedinitafreshi Yu Inamoto Dylan Hames Isela Liu Ema Hristova Bakalova Will Chuanrui Yu Hudson Parris Paola Bokobsa Youjin Rhee Nele Herrmann Daniela Morin Thomas Guerra Megan Octaviani Praveen Lalitha Kishorekumar

COLLABORATORS

BNIM
StructureCraft
Walter P Moore
Cumming Group
JE Dunn Construction
Smith & Boucher
Forza Consultants
SK Design Group
Rosin Preservation
Kilograph

NOT A HOTEL Setouchi

SAGI ISLAND, JAPAN

NOT A HOTEL Setouchi

SAGI ISLAND, JAPAN

2024

CLIENT

Not a Hotel, Inc.

TYPOLOGY

Hospitality, Urbanism

SIZE M2/FT2

2,350 / 21,500

STATUS

IN DESIGN

Japanese hospitality group NOT A HOTEL has partnered with BIG to expand the company’s existing six hospitality offerings across Japan. Located on a 30,000 m2 site on Japan’s remote Sagi Island, NOT A HOTEL Setouchi brings three villas to the island’s southwestern cape with panoramic views of the Seto Inland Sea.

The design for NOT A HOTEL Setouchi builds on the longstanding relationship between Scandinavian and Japanese design values. The luxury resort weaves naturally throughout the remote island’s mountains, incorporating natural and local materials while promoting a connection to nature.

"In the last few decades, Japan has been attracting attention as a place to experience stunning natural landscapes as well as high-end design, innovative architecture, and cutting-edge art. The Seto Inland Sea area, where NOT A HOTEL SETOUCHI will be built, brings together all of these aspects of Japanese tourism into a single site. In partnering with BIG, we are creating one of Japan’s most luxurious villas on Sagi Island, which will be a gateway for more people to experience the charm of the Setouchi region."

Shinji Hamauzu — CEO & Founder, NOT A HOTEL

The relationship between Scandinavian and Japanese design began in the 19th century, when Japan opened their borders to international travellers. Soon after, Scandinavian designers began visiting the country and quickly became fascinated by the Japanese style for its simplicity, use of natural materials and connection to nature – the same principles that guided the design ethos for NOT A HOTEL Setouchi.

The masterplan for NOT A HOTEL Setouchi prioritises restoration of the undulating terrain, where grass will be harvested before construction begins, while olive trees, lemon trees and other native vegetation will be reintroduced to further enhance the site’s natural beauty. The three villas – named ‘360,’ ‘270’ and ‘180’ depending on location and corresponding views – intentionally blend into the landscape’s natural contours, aligning with existing roads and infrastructure. Spread across varying elevations, the resort appears like a ribbon winding through the site.

The design of NOT A HOTEL Setouchi is inspired by a traditional Japanese house, with buildings angled at 90°, 180°, 270°, and 360°. The design approach crafts distinct typologies tailored to Sagishima's unique landscape and existing infrastructure, accentuating the panoramic views of the surrounding mountains and water.

"Our design approach for NOT A HOTEL Setouchi wasn’t about imposing our ideas on the site; instead, it involved exploring, observing and understanding the landscape. We envisioned how to best leverage this distinctive and remarkable terrain and fixed upon a design that mirrors the elegance of traditional Japanese architecture. Japan is one of the cultures in the world where commitment to craft and care for quality remains intact. The honesty and simplicity of the structure and careful choice of materials can be said to have greatly influenced the traditional architecture of Japan and the modern architecture of Denmark. Maybe that's why when I go to Japan, I always feel like I'm coming home. NOT A HOTEL Setouchi will be an experiment in what happens when the sensibilities of both countries come together – the Danish desire for simplicity and the care and perfection of Japan."

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

Each villa has distinct design characteristics that fit into their specific location onsite. The ring-shaped ‘360’ is perched at the highest altitude, offering literal 360-degree views of Setouchi’s land and seascape with a central courtyard for privacy. ‘270’ captures a 270-degree panorama of the surrounding archipelago, featuring bathing spaces arranged like floating islands around the pool alongside a sauna and open firepit. At the peninsula’s tip, ‘180’ is the closest to the sea, whose curvature follows the coastal landscape. The home includes an inner courtyard with gentle slopes, mossy pathways and trees that change colour with the seasons.

The three- and four-bedroom villas reference the design of traditional Japanese single-story houses, incorporating materials local to Japan. The essential elements of the homes – the façade, roof, walls and floor – all preserve traditional Japanese architectural elements while being reimagined for modern-day use. Glass façades that connect the interior and exterior are a modern interpretation of shoji screens, while the pattern of the Genshoseki natural slate floors is inspired by the layout of traditional Japanese tatami mats. The load bearing curved clay walls are achieved using the traditional rammed earth technique, incorporating soil directly from the site.

Each villa opens into a large, unified space, with areas of functionality such as bathrooms and storage rooms consolidated into separate volumes, or pods. Skylights are placed atop these more private pods to provide views from any point within the buildings – balancing openness with solitude.

The villas all feature traditional Japanese baths, calming colour palettes, outdoor firepits and heated infinity pools that blur the boundaries between the properties and the surrounding nature.

The roofs at NOT A HOTEL Setouchi are covered on all sides with solar tiles, representing a technological and modern interpretation of a traditional Japanese roof. Rainwater collected by the elevated roofs is used to irrigate the landscaping, while the operable façades and overhangs promote passive cooling in spring and summer.

"Setouchi comprises a dense and dramatic archipelago, characterized by beautiful undulating silhouettes of mountainous islands. Our approach for this design aims to simultaneously expand and enhance the vast panoramic views of the archipelago while creating moments of intimacy and privacy through minimal architectural interventions. NOT A HOTEL Setouchi fuses, the essence of BIG and modern Danish architecture with the DNA of NOT A HOTEL and traditional Japanese culture."

Ryohei Koike — Associate, BIG

Bjarke Ingels Leon Rost Jan Leenknegt Margaret Tyrpa Sang Ha Jung Yu Inamoto Casey Tucker Andrea Hektor Joanna M. Lesna Mamoru Hoshi Naysan John Foroudi Ryohei Koike Théo Hamy Steven Op Don Chen Ahmad Tabbakh Konstantinos Koutsoupakis Suyue Huo Jeremy Felson Oskar Maly Jasmine Nicholson Cullen Fu Matthew Lau Pavel Tomek Fani Christina Papadopoulou Paul Heberle

COLLABORATORS

Maeda Corporation
ARUP Japan
1moku
NOSIGHT
BOCS
Mir
LIT design

Manresa Island

NORWALK, UNITED STATES

Manresa Island

NORWALK, UNITED STATES

2024

CLIENT

Manresa Island Corporation

TYPOLOGY

Culture

SIZE M2/FT2

23,226 / 250,000

STATUS

IN DESIGN

Manresa Island is situated on the site of a decommissioned power plant in southeast Connecticut. The industrial peninsula, surrounded by water on three sides, will be transformed into a 125-acre publicly accessible park and a destination with diverse year-round public programs and research partnerships with local universities.

Manresa Island will reimagine the site into a new public amenity for the city of Norwalk, unlocking 1.75 miles of waterfront access for the first time in nearly 75 years. BIG was commissioned to preserve and adapt the plant’s main structures: the 22,000-sq-ft boiler building; the 22,000-sq-ft turbine hall; the 8,200-sq-ft office building; and the 350-ft-tall smokestack. Through adaptive reuse, these will be reimagined into a network of event spaces, educational and research facilities, and areas for play.

After Hurricane Sandy damaged the plant and it was decommissioned in 2013, the land has seen a resurgence in its natural environment, with a birch forest growing on the disposed coal ash and increased populations of ospreys nesting throughout the area. Immersing visitors in the site’s ecological richness, Manresa Island’s publicly accessible park, designed by SCAPE, will feature new waterfront walking paths, inviting exploration and connection with nature. The park will include living shorelines, wetland restoration, and tree canopies aimed at mitigating extreme heat and flooding, ensuring a resilient public space that celebrates and protects the island’s biodiversity.

Once home to the Manresa Institute, a retreat and recreation destination in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the site was converted into a coal-fired power plant in the 1950s. Now, Manresa Island will become a revitalized ecological habitat with educational and recreational opportunities centered around water.

The eight-story boiler building will focus on recreation, including multiple swimming areas and food and beverage options. The turbine hall will be converted into a multi-purpose space, while the adjacent office building – the smallest structure – will provide opportunities for marine and ecological learning as a laboratory with classrooms and research spaces. The design will preserve key aspects of the existing power plant, including the structural framework, smokestack, and administrative space.

"Manresa Island is set to become a much-needed foothold for the public along the otherwise rather privatized Connecticut coastline. With our vision for the powerplant, we seek to rediscover and reanimate the majestic spaces hidden within the bones of the decommissioned piece of infrastructure. Boilers, silos, and turbine halls are postindustrial cathedrals awaiting exploration and reinterpretation. As an extension of SCAPE’s resettlement of the island for the enjoyment of human life among many other forms of life, we seek to extend that resettlement into the cavernous spaces within. By editing rather than adding, we will open up and clear out the existing spaces so that the once coal-powered plant can become the framework for the social and cultural life of Manresa's future—from energy infrastructure to social infrastructure."

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

The park will not only protect, expand, and revive wetlands and salt marshes, but will also offer a diverse network of outdoor areas for engagement with local habitats. Key features include an expansive green lawn and meadow, a public beach with sweeping views of the Long Island Sound and New York City, and pedestrian bridges that provide opportunities to observe wildlife. Rooted in Manresa Island’s aquatic theme, visitors can also enjoy outdoor thermal pools, a rejuvenated pier, and a boat launch.

Bjarke Ingels Daniel Sundlin Rita Sio Thomas McMurtrie Danna Lei Jeremy Alain Siegel Douglass Alligood Tom Lasbrey Norain Chang Sungmin Kim Alejandro Guadarrama Daniela Morin Fani Christina Papadopoulou Victoire Talien Moya Annastacia Kernan Ethan Blatt Abdallah Kamel Nathaniel Buchanan Albers Yijun Yan Seung Hyo Chang

COLLABORATORS

SCAPE
Atelier Ten
TYLin
Kohler Ronan
CCI
Tighe & Bond
E-Design Dynamics
AKRF
Directional Logic
HR&A Advisors

Joint Research Center

SEVILLA, SPAIN

Joint Research Center

SEVILLA, SPAIN

2021

CLIENT

European Commision Joint Research Center

TYPOLOGY

Work

SIZE M2/FT2

9,922 / 106,800

STATUS

IN DESIGN

The new Joint Research Centre in Seville, ‘Solar Cupola’ delivers on JRC’s commitment to sustainability, unites the European vision of the New Bauhaus initiative, and establishes a new benchmark for workspace that empowers knowledge sharing, collaboration and co-creation.

Located at the former EXPO ´92 site, in Isla de la Cartuja, the new 9,900 m2 building for the European Commission, ties into the City of Sevilla’s goal to become a global benchmark for sustainability by 2025 and the local vision of the eCity Sevilla project to decarbonize and transition Isla de la Cartuja to 100% renewable energy sources.

The building will house 12 research units and supporting functions as well as public and private outdoor spaces.

BIG proposes the new Joint Research Centre to run diagonally across the orthogonal site which creates the opportunity to connect the JRC directly to the ‘Jardin Americano’ river-front promenade and the Torre Sevilla mall in a seamless continuous public space that is both plaza and promenade.

The JRC will provide 4 times more solar cells than initially planned. BIG proposes to cover the entire site with an array of solar panels to reduce the operational carbon footprint of the building.

The sustainable performance of the building drives the architectural aesthetic of the JRC that not only makes the building perform better but also makes it more inhabitable, comfortable and beautiful - BIG’s attempt at a new Andalusian environmental vernacular.

Informed by the shaded plazas and streets of Seville, BIG proposes to cover the entire project site with a cloud of solar canopies sheltering the plaza, garden, and research building underneath, akin to the pergolas typical to Seville. The canopies consist of square lightweight PV sheets supported by slender columns. The roofscape cascades down from the center to a human-scale height at its periphery, creating a variety of public spaces underneath.

"With our design for the Joint Research Centre in Seville, more than anything, we have attempted to allow the sustainable performance of the building to drive an architectural aesthetic that not only makes the building perform better but also makes it more inhabitable and more beautiful - a new Andalusian environmental vernacular."

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

Inside, the functions of the new JRC building are organized with public program and amenities such as dining, a conference center and social spaces on the ground floor, while the offices and research units occupy the upper floors for privacy and security. The collaborative workplaces face the plaza, while the deep-focus workspaces face the garden. The proposed layout is designed to be entirely flexible and adaptable according to any future needs of the JRC.

Following the building geometry and modularity two diagonal voids connect all levels of the building, encouraging physical movement as well as social interaction and informal meetings.

“When we visited the site in Seville and carefully reviewed JRC’s ambitious goals, we realized the potential to not only meet but exceed the requirements of the new JRC by creating a new breed of building - one that could become a beacon for sustainability, the future of public space and work environment - a single system tailored to Seville’s social and physical vernacular.”

João Albuquerque — Partner, BIG

The passive design of the building through its shallow floorplate and constant shading under the pergola cloud enables natural cross ventilation and ideal light qualities, reducing the energy consumption typically used on artificial lightening, air conditioning and mechanical ventilation.

The design prioritizes locally sourced materials, such as limestone, wood, and ceramic tiling. The structure is low-carbon concrete, reducing up to 30% of typical CO2 emissions, while the pergola cloud is made from recycled steel. Outdoor gardens, greenery from the region, and water elements reduce/eliminate the heat island effect and create a comfortable microclimate.

The JRC building is positioned diagonally across the site connecting it to the ‘Jardin Americano’ river-front and the Torre Sevilla market in a seamless continuous public space. Placing the building diagonally also creates a new public square on one side of the building and a private garden for the JRC community on the other. The floorplates of the research center step back as the building ascends, creating a series of terraces, shaded outdoor spaces for breakouts, relaxation, and informal meetings with views of the city.

Bjarke Ingels Angel Barreno Gutiérrez Hanna Ida Johansson Matthew Reger Sille Foltinger Stefani Fachini De Araujo João Albuquerque Giulia Frittoli Gonzalo Coronado Maceda Elena Ceribelli Jose Gomez Carbonell Raphaël Logan Barber Saina Abdollahzadeh Miquel Perez Pietro Saccardi Nir Leshem Luca Fabbri Patrycja Tomaszewska Steffen Alvang Dino Vojvodic

COLLABORATORS

Buro Happold
HCP Architecture & Engineering
Grupo Argenia

CopenHill

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

CopenHill

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

2019

CLIENT

Amager Resource Center | Amager Bakke Foundation

TYPOLOGY

Infrastructure

SIZE M2/FT2

41,000 / 441,324

STATUS

COMPLETED

Located in an industrial area near Copenhagen city center, CopenHill, also known as Amager Bakke, is an exemplary model in the field of waste management and energy production, as well as an architectural landmark in the cityscape of Copenhagen. The building replaces the 50-year-old Amagerforbraending plant and is the single largest environmental initiative in Denmark.

The new breed of waste-to-energy plant is topped with a ski slope, hiking trail, climbing wall, an urban recreation center, and environmental education hub, turning the power plant into a destination. The building embodies BIG’s notion of hedonistic sustainability while contributing to Copenhagen’s goal of becoming one of the world’s first carbon-neutral cities.

PROGRAM — Without sacrificing efficiency, BIG was able to organize the volumetric organization of the machinery inside the plant from tallest to shortest.

FUN FACTORY — BIG proposed a new breed of waste-to-energy plant, one that is economically, environmentally and socially profitable.

FACADE — The building is gently wrapped with a continuous façade made out of stacked aluminum bricks. The openings between them are letting cascades of light into the deep process hall and the administration spaces.

PLANTERS — In time, the bricks on the facade can function as planters, creating a green façade and turning the building into a green mountain from afar.

ALPINE SKIING IN COPENHAGEN — BIG proposed to turn the roof of the new plant into an artificial, year-round ski slope for the citizens of Copenhagen.

THREE PISTS — The geometry of the roofscape supports three slopes of different gradients with a total of 500 m of ski runs and a terrain park. This accommodates beginner and pro skiers.

SLOPE ACCESS — Access to the ski paths is through an elevator adjacent to the smokestack. The elevator has a glass wall facing the interior of the plant, allowing recreational buffs and sightseers to have a glimpse into the internal workings of the plant.

TAKE A WALK IN THE PARK — The roof doesn't only function as a ski slope, but like a real mountain with green forest areas, hike trail and climbing walls. The top of the slope invites visitors to enjoy a café and 360 views from the viewing platform.

COPENHILL — Rather than a traditional visitor center, people come on their own for skiing and hiking, and become curious about what happens inside the mountain.

Located on the industrial waterfront of Amager, where raw industrial facilities have become the site for extreme sports – from wakeboarding to go-kart racing – the new power plant adds skiing, hiking, and rock climbing to the area. Expert skiers can ski down the artificial Olympic half-pipe length ski slope all year round, test the freestyle park, or try the timed slalom course, while beginners and kids practice on the lower slopes. Skiers ascend the park from the platter lift, carpet lifts, or glass elevator with views inside the 24-hour waste incineration process.

CopenHill’s continuous façade features 1.2 m tall and 3.3 m-wide aluminum boxes stacked like gigantic bricks overlapping with each other. In between, glazed windows allow daylight to reach deep inside the facility, while larger openings on the southwest façade illuminate workstations on the administrative floors.

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The public can enjoy the rooftop bar, cross-fit area, or the highest observation deck in the city before descending the 490 m tree-lined hiking and running trail within the lush, mountainous terrain. The 10,000 m2 green roof, 85 m high up in the air, features a biodiverse landscape while absorbing heat, removing air particulates, and minimizing storm-water runoff.

Biologists have monitored the biodiversity of Copenhill since its inauguration in 2019. At the latest investigation in 2020, 119 different new plant and tree species were observed.

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On the longest vertical façade, an 85 m climbing wall is installed making it the tallest artificial climbing wall in the world.

Beneath the slopes, whirring furnaces, steam, and turbines convert 440,000 tons of waste annually into enough clean energy to deliver electricity and district heating for 150,000 homes. The power plant’s infrastructure, from ventilation shafts to air-intakes, helps create the varied topography of a mountain; a man-made landscape created in the encounter between the needs from below and the desires from above.

Ten floors of administrative space are occupied by the Amager Resource Center team, including a 600 m2 education center for academic tours, workshops and sustainability conferences.

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At the bottom of the ski slope, an après-ski bar welcomes locals and visitors to wind down once the boots are off. Formerly a piece of infrastructure in an industrial zone, CopenHill is now a destination for all citizens and visitors of Copenhagen.

Bjarke Ingels Finn Nørkjær David Zahle Jakob Lange Brian Yang Andreas Klok Pedersen Blake Smith Jelena Vucic Jesper Boye Andersen Ji-Young Yoon Adam Busko Adam Mahfuh Adrien Mans Annette Jensen Alexander Codda Alvaro Garcia Mendive Anders Holden Deleuran Boris Peianov Borko Nikolic Buster Christensen Carl Pettersson Chris Falla Ella Coco Murphy Espen Vik Gonzalo Ivan Castro Vecchiola Helen Shuyang Chen Jean Valentiner Strandholt Joanna Anna Jakubowska Joanna M. Lesna Joos Jerne Kamilla Heskje Kasper Worsøe Pejtersen Kim Christensen Lars Thonke Laura Wätte Lone Fenger Albrechtsen Mads Engaard Stidsen Mathias Larsen Nanna Gyldholm Møller Nynne Brynjolf Madsen Richard Howis Ryohei Koike Sebastian Liszka Seunghan Yeum Tore Banke Yehezkiel Wiliardy Manik Zoltan Kalászi Gül Ertekin Alberto Cumerlato Aleksander Wadas Alexander Eising Alexandra Gustafsson Alina Tamosiunaite Anders Hjortnæs Ariel Joy Norback Wallner Armor Gutiérrez Rivas Ask Andersen Balaj Alin Iulian Brygida Zawadzka Chris Zhongtian Yuan Claus Hermansen Daniel Selensky Dennis Rasmussen Franck Fdida George Abraham Henrick Poulsen Henrik Kania Horia Spirescu Jeppe Ecklon Jing Xu Johanna Nenander Katarzyna Krystyna Siedlecka Krzysztof Piotr Marciszewski Liang Wang Lise Jessen Long Zuo Maciej Jakub Zawadzki Marcelina Kolasinska Marcos Garcia Bano Maren Allen Mathias Bank Stigsen Matti Hein Nørgaard Michael Andersen Narisara Ladawal Schröder Nicklas Antoni Rasch Oanh Nguyen Øssur Nolsø Pero Vukovic Se Hyeon Kim Simon Masson Sunming Lee Takahiro Hirayama Toni Mateu Xing Xiong Yang Zhang Jakob Ohm Laursen

AWARDS

Energy Globe National Award, 2022

World Architecture Festival Best Building of the Year Winner, 2021

World Architecture Festival Best Energy & Infrastructure Category Winner, 2021

IOC, IPC and IAKS award international architecture prize, 2021

Bundesverband GebäudeGrün Green Roof Award, 2020

IDEAT Future Award, Best Public Architecture, 2020

Popular Science Best of What’s New Award, 2020

ICONIC Awards, Innovative Architecture, Best of the Best Award, 2020

Design Educates Award, 2020

German Design Council Innovative Architecture, Best of the Best Award Winner, 2020

Architizer A+ Awards Factories & Warehouses Popular Winner, 2020

ArchDaily Building of the Year Award, Industrial Architecture, 2020

Scandinavian Green Roof Award, 2019

Architizer A+ Award, Architecture Photography, 2019

European Steel Design Award, 2017

Tekla Global BIM Awards, 2015

P/A Progressive Architecture Awards, Citation, 2015

MIPIM AR Future Projects Awards, 2012

COLLABORATORS

Detail Design:
MOE
SLA
Lüchinger+Mayer
Rambøll
Zublin
Jesper Kongshaug
BIG Ideas

Competition:
AKT
Topotek 1
Man Mad Land
Realities: United

A.P. Møller Fonden
Lokale og Anlægsfonden
Nordea Fonden
R98 Fonden
Københavns Kommune
Frederiksberg Kommune
Tårnby Kommune
Dragør Kommune
Hvidovre Kommune

Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub

TOULOUSE, FRANCE

Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub

TOULOUSE, FRANCE

2024

CLIENT

Région Occitanie Pyrénées Méditerranée

TYPOLOGY

Infrastructure

SIZE M2/FT2

12,000 / 129,167

STATUS

IN DESIGN

As part of Toulouse’s Grand Matabiau Quais d’Oc masterplan, the Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub will revitalise the urban area, facilitate seamless travel, and triple the number of daily passengers travelling to and from the city. Constructed mainly in wood, the 12,000 m2 hub connects to the Gare Matabiau central train station in the west and dovetails the city’s pedestrian and bicycle flows towards the east, acting as a link between the city center, the UNESCO-listed Canal du Midi and the Périole neighbourhood.

Referencing the city’s roofscape and traditional use of the “foraine” brick, the building is characterised by a rose-colored, crystalline roof. From the main entrance canopy in the south, the hub’s structure gradually rises in a sloping movement towards the north, reaching 32 metres in height towards the railway tracks. The hub is set to attain Silver Occitanie Sustainable Buildings certification, as well as the Biodiversity Effinature, and HQE Infrastructure.

"The new Transport hub's folded roof, rising from the Marengo parvis, defines the main hall with lush greenery and ample daylight, welcoming visitors and leading them to metro and train tracks below. The building's elegant silhouette, growing northward in height, curves along rue de Périole. Ground and lower floors will offer areas for rest and retail and the Maison du Climat event space, while upper floors accommodate regional offices. Pursuing low carbon solutions in the design, we employed mass timber, low carbon concrete, and natural ventilation throughout, with photovoltaics on the roof. This simple yet multifunctional design transforms the roof into Toulouse's new landmark."

Jakob Sand — Partner in Charge, BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group

The site offers diverse functions and is located alongside the railway, facing the historic Gare Matabiau.

The maximum envelope is divided in two, each with their respective height limit. The southern part facing the main entrance has a limit of 15 meters, while the northern part facing the tracks has a limit of 35 meters.

The maximum envelope is formed with a gentle slope connecting the lowest and highest points.

The building's height is reduced to fit the required program and cater to the human scale towards the main entrance.

The main entrance is activated with a covered canopy, creating a strong pedestrian link from the bridge and the bus station.

The east façade curves towards the Périole neighborhood to guide the flows of pedestrians and cyclists.

The folded roof references Toulouse's characteristic roofscape.

The ground floor is activated with cafés, restaurants, retail spaces, as well as the Maison du Climat event space. The office space for the Occitanie Region is situated from floors 1-6. Bike parking is accessible via the eastern corner.

As the structure grows in height, each level gradually recedes, creating a triangular shape. This enables visual connections across floors and pulls daylight down to the hub’s lowest levels, accommodating comfortable and easy navigation for travellers throughout the day.

Passing the bus station and entering through the main entrance, travellers are led below ground to Gare Matabiau, railway, metro lines, and the transport hub’s hangout areas. The ground floor and two sub-levels will feature flexible and informal public spaces open to all, including areas for rest as well as commercial and cultural activities. Here, Maison du Climat, an initiative to further the public’s knowledge on environmental topics, will manage an event space for exhibitions, conferences, and workshops.

Floors one through six will function as an office space for the 350 employees of the Occitanie Region. The roof, composed of photovoltaics, is punctured by skylights, allowing in natural light. Local plants and trees are planted in the building and bike station to echo the vegetation of the Haute-Garonne region.

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Bjarke Ingels Jakob Sand Agla Egilsdottir Claudia Bertolotti Gerhard Pfeiler Hyojin Lee Martyna Kloda Raphael Ciriani Giulia Frittoli Maria Capuozzo Mathieu Michel Cardinal Gustavo Alejandro Lopez Rodriguez Giulia Orlando Johannes Alexander Hackl Yanis Amasri Sierra Will Chuanrui Yu Charlie Laran Sasha Spasic Oliwia Jagla Charles Vidal Dervan Ahmed Tomáš Chrástecký Marco Sartoretto Dong Joo Jo Ebba Kristina Andersson

COLLABORATORS

A+Architecture
A+R Paysages
ALTO
CLDesign
Cronos Conseil
dUCKS scéno
Systematica
Franck Boutté
LASA
les éclaireurs
l'Echo
schlaich bergermann partner - sbp
Span
MBacity
FER-PLAY
OGI

BIG HQ

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

BIG HQ

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

2023

CLIENT

Sundmolen BIG aps (BIG HQ Building) | By & Havn (Landscape)

TYPOLOGY

Work, Interiors

STATUS

COMPLETED

The 7-storey HQ is architecturally anchored in Copenhagen harbor’s heritage of warehouses and factories. The small footprint at the end of the pier became the main design dilemma: how to organize a single work environment for all of us when we would have to be split between a minimum of four levels. In a counterintuitive decision, we split all the floors in half and doubled the amount of levels.

BIG HQ is BIG’s first example of fully integrated LEAP design – a collaboration between Landscape, Engineering, Architecture and Product designers. Everything from door handles to concrete columns – from urban design to glass facades has been given form by the BIG LEAP team. The building is designed to achieve the Danish sustainability certification, DGNB Gold, through use of FutureCem concrete, which reduces CO₂ emission with approx. 25% reduction as well as integration of solar and geothermal energy systems, and natural ventilation of the office spaces.

OPEN-PLAN OFFICE — To get 4-5,000 m2 of connected office space on the site as one continuous floor would require a site 4-5 times the available size.

CONNECTED OFFICE — Instead of a typical atrium building, BIG HQ is structured as a cascade of half floors that result in one huge, spatially interconnected office space across 7 levels.

TRIANGULAR BEAMS — The façade structure consists of a checkered pattern of 7 façade beams supporting the entire building. To make the pattern "click", one beam on each level is triangular. These triangular elements simultaneously act as terraces and escape stairs keeping the center free from an enclosed central fire stair.

OPEN HEART — The elevator, vertical risers and a smaller, secondary egress stair are moved to the northern edge of the building in an overlap between the north facing beams, leaving the floor plates and the center of the building as open as possible.

SLABS AND COLUMNS — The stacked, oversized concrete elements give the building a structural and visual uniqueness. The green spiral staircase for social activities and breaks wraps around the building, doubling as the main egress route.

EXTROVERTED GROUND FLOOR — On the ground floor, half of each façade is a transparent glass panel opening the HQ up to its surroundings. The entrance and exhibition space face west, while a restaurant with outdoor seating opens towards south.

CONNECTED — The spatially interconnected floors are arranged around a central stair zig-zagging its way from ground floor to the 6th floor.

VIEWS AND CONTEXT — The location of the building on the very tip of the Sundmolen Pier allows for generous city and/or harbor views on all four sides of the HQ.

FOREST AND BEACH — The public space is designed as a transition between two landscape typologies - from a beach to a green coastal forest.

BIG HQ — The stacking of large concrete elements creates a 3D pattern of transparent and opaque façade partitions, that enable a spatially complex and connected office space - a BIG LEAP project, where our disciplines work together to form the most functionally, spatially & economically optimal office building.

Upon entering the main entrance through a 3 m tall glass door, BIGsters and guests will find themselves in a dramatic Piranesian space, where the inner life of the building reveals
itself through diagonal views all the way up to the top floor.

A single stone column of eight different types of rock – ranging from dense granite at the bottom to a porous limestone at the top – form a totem pole to gravity at the heart of the open
space. An open stair ricochets from level to level all the way from the basement to the penthouse.

A series of half floor plates overlap to create a cascading environment of interconnected levels that unite the entire seven-storey building visually and physically into a single space. The floor plates are carried by 20-m-long concrete beams stacked on top of each other, which make the exterior façade appear as a checkerboard of interchanging solid beams and transparent windows.

Each floor has direct access to a balcony connected to the balcony above and below, forming a continuous ribbon of outdoor spaces, spiraling from the roof to the quayside like a mountain path. The ribbon doubles as the additional fire escape freeing up the interior from the obstruction of the traditional core.

At the foot of BIG HQ, BIG’s Landscape team has transformed a former parking area into a 1,500 m2 public park and promenade, inspired by the sandy beaches and the coastal forests of Denmark. Towards the north, native forest trees, such as pines and oaks, create shelter from the harsh winds of the harbour. Towards the south, areas with planting, rocks and woods support habitat creation for biodiversity. At the heart of the park, tucked away between the trees, a sculpture by American artist Benjamin Langholz titled “Stone 40” will surprise and engage visitors of all ages.

Bjarke Ingels Finn Nørkjær David Zahle Jakob Lange Andreas Klok Pedersen Ole Elkjær-Larsen Agla Egilsdottir Marius Tromholt-Richter Matthew Thomson Shu Zhao Jesper Boye Andersen Annette Jensen Alda Sol Hauksdóttir Alexander Jacobson Anders Fønss Andrea Hektor Andy Coward Anna Bertolazzi Anna Wiktoria Wozniak Anne-Charlotte Wiklander Andrea Angelo Suardi Aya Fibert Barbora Hrmova Bart Ramakers Bjarke Koch-Ørvad Christian Eugenius Kuczynski Danyu Zeng Dina Brændstrup Eddie Can Ewa Zapiec Fabiana Cortolezzis Felicia Olufsson Filip Rozkowski Frederik Lyng Frederik Skou Jensen Gabrielle Nadeau Giulia Genovese Graham Forrest Jordan Cris Guoyu Liu Hanne Halvorsen Helen Shuyang Chen Henrik Jacobsen Hilda Heller Ines Zunic Irie Meree Jesper Kanstrup Petersen Jonathan Russell Jonathan Udemezue Joos Jerne Juhye Kim Kanetnat Puttimettipanan Kaoan Hengles De Lima Katrine Juul Kim Christensen Kim Lauer Kristian Mousten Kristoffer Negendahl Lars Thonke Lenya Nikola Schneehage Lisbet Fritze Trentemøller Lone Fenger Albrechtsen Louise Mould Luca Pileri Mads Engaard Stidsen Mads Primdahl Rokkjær Magni Waltersson Marah Wagner Margarita Nutfulina Mariana De Soares e Barbieri Cardoso Martyna Kloda Michael James Kepke Mikki Seidenschnur Milan Moldenhawer Mikkel Marcker Stubgaard Mussa Algasra Nandi Lu Nanna Gyldholm Møller Omar Mohamed Nabil Mohamed Saad Mowafy Paula Madrid Sergiu Calacean Sille Foltinger Snorre Nash Steen Kortbæk Svendsen Thor Larsen-Lechuga Timo Harboe Nielsen Tobias Hjortdal Tommy Bjørnstrup Tore Banke Tristan Harvey Ulla Hornsyld Xavier Thanki Xingyue Huang Xinyi Chen Xinying Zhang Yehezkiel Wiliardy Manik Yunyoung Choi Gül Ertekin Høgni Laksafoss Natasha Lykke Lademann Østergaard Søren Martinussen Andreas Bak Giulia Frittoli Maria Natalia Lenardon Mathieu Jaumain Narisara Ladawal Schröder Sherief Al Rifal Jiewei Li Justas Zabulionis Jonas Rask Dobrochna Anna Klimczak Marija Cvijović Celia de la Osa Muñoz Bartłomiej Lew Krestian Ingemann Hansen Helena Hammershaimb Alexandra-Madalina Nita Anna Lindgaard Jensen Ricardo Candel Brian Malig Collado Louise Brøndbjerg Johan Fredrik Lindqvist Celina Holck Jannik Albæk Fernanda Furuya Arthur Martinevski Kaja Terze Jialin Liang Petra Hajdu Mathilde Jeppesen Atibadi Brugnano Ioannis Mathioudakis Ahmed Badra Adrianna Szmidt

AWARDS

Copenhagen Municipality Architecture Prize, 2024

COLLABORATORS

LM Byg
Pihl & Søn
Aalborg Portland
Centrum Pæle
Connex
El Team Vest
Energy Machines
Skel.dk
Paschal Stillads
Kjellerup VVS
HB Trapper
Eiler Thomsen
Deko
Brønnum
Primatag
Optimus
Krak Bau
Alt om Fugning Aps
YOUR PARTNER
Kvadrat Acoustics
GOTESSONS
Akustik Miljø
Dansk Belægningsenterprise
NO.BA Studio
Ceramica Cielo
TONI Copenhagen
Dinesen Floors A/S
Influit
Helden
Artelia Group
Fritz Hansen
Muller van Severen
Aluflam
Artemide
Kristoffer Negendahl
Windowmaster
Viasol
Schüco
Anker & Co.
E. Nielsens Mekaniske Stenhuggeri A/S
Allremove
Miele
SHURE
Shack Trapper

Johns Hopkins Student Center

BALTIMORE, UNITED STATES

Johns Hopkins Student Center

BALTIMORE, UNITED STATES

CLIENT

Johns Hopkins University

TYPOLOGY

Education

SIZE M2/FT2

13,935 / 150,000

STATUS

IN CONSTRUCTION

The Hopkins Student Center will form a new social engagement hub for all members of the Johns Hopkins University community. The 143,000 sq ft building includes spaces for relaxation and socializing, student resources and support, a digital media center, performance space with seating for 200 people, and a dining hall.

Located at the intersection of 33rd and Charles Streets, the Hopkins Student Center will foster greater connectivity between the campus and the neighboring community by creating a prominent point of entry. As a natural gateway, the area will connect Charles Village and the 3,500+ Johns Hopkins students who live in the neighborhood to the heart of the Homewood campus.

EXISTING SITE — The site is located on the hill of the Grove, next to the existing Homewood campus Beach at the main gateway between the City and the Campus.

INDOOR LANDSCAPE — The indoor landscape - as vast as the 'Beach' next door - negotiates the grade of the site to allow direct entry from all four levels, while maintaining a friendly human scale.

GATHERING SPACES — A true Village of student life, the student center is comprised of an array of spaces, including art studios, a music rehearsal room, a state-of-the-art performance space, job fairs, and a student engagement hub.

SITE CONNECTIONS — The building is rotated to align with the historic Merrick Barn next door and improve site connectivity for greater pedestrian flows.

CAMPUS LIVING ROOM — All spaces connect back to the Campus Living Room, an inclusive melting pot for student life, and a crossroad for campus connectivity.

PROGRAM DISPLAY — The porosity and transparency of the student center places its activities and school spirit on display, expressing an ever-changing mosaic of the student body.

THE VILLAGE — The Village is a vision for the new Hopkins Student Center, a physical expression of the student body diversity, and a welcoming new beacon for both Campus and Community.

The Hopkins Student Center is conceived as a central living room – a dynamic hub – surrounded by a collection of spaces tailored to the needs of the Hopkins community. The building negotiates the sloping grade of the site to allow direct entry from all four levels of the building, while maintaining a human scale and providing several accessible routes across the site. Arriving on Charles Street, students and visitors are greeted by an open building façade with dining areas spilling out onto a plaza.

The mass timber structure provides a warm and acoustically comfortable environment as light filters in through clerestory glazed windows. A circular staircase allows for a continuous connection to the building’s perimeter under 29 cantilevered roof planes, which provide shading for the building. The roofs are covered in photovoltaic panels that generate up to 40% of the building’s yearly energy consumption – a design strategy that contribute to the University’s larger sustainability goals, including LEED Platinum Certification.

The design transforms the landscape around the building to create outdoor spaces for student activities and events. A central plaza can host pop-up exhibits or performances, as well as vendors and food trucks to enliven the North Charles Street corridor.

Bjarke Ingels Leon Rost Agne Rapkeviciute Andres Romero Jason Wu Corliss Ng Elizabeth Mcdonald Florencia Kratsman Guillaume Evain Jamie Maslyn Larson Jan Leenknegt Ken Chongsuwat Kevin Pham Margaret Tyrpa Oliver Thomas Kig Veerasunthorn Terrence Chew Tracy Sodder Veronica Watson Xi Zhang Alex Wu Emily Chen Chia-Yu Liu Lawrence-Olivier Mahadoo Tony-Saba Shiber Bryan Hardin Christopher Pin Deb Campbell Gabriel Jewell-Vitale Jialin Yuan Alexander Jacobson Ema Hristova Bakalova Frederic Lucien Engasser Jakub Kulisa Jesper Kanstrup Petersen Kaoan Hengles De Lima Mengzhu Jiang Tore Banke Tom Lasbrey Benjamin Caldwell Josiah Poland Mike Munoz Mike Munoz Juan Diego Perez Diez Alan Maedo Ryan Henriksen Luca McLaughlin Cynthia Wang Alejandro Guadarrama Matthew Lau

COLLABORATORS

Clark Construction
Lindner
StructureCraft
Shepley Bulfinch
Rockwell Group
MVVA
WSP-NYC
WRA
Knippers Helbig
Charcoal Blue
L’Observatoire
Point of Reference Studio/POR
Thornton Tomasetti
Acentech
Ricca
Code Red
Lerch Bates
WJE
Campbell-McCabe
Kalin Associates
Squint/Opera

The Twist

JEVNAKER, NORWAY

The Twist

JEVNAKER, NORWAY

2019

CLIENT

Kistefos Museum Jevnaker

TYPOLOGY

Culture

SIZE M2/FT2

1,000 / 10,764

STATUS

COMPLETED

The Twist is a contemporary art museum situated in the Kistefos Sculpture Park, located around a one hour drive from Oslo. The sculpture park, built around an old paper mill, occupies both embankments of the Randselva river and features sculptures by Olafur Eliasson, Lynda Benglis, Yayoi Kusama, Jeppe Hein, and Anish Kapoor, among others.

BIG was invited to design an intimate art museum to transform the visitor experience and add 1,000 m2 of indoor exhibition space to the park. After a careful study of the site, BIG proposed a raw and simple sculptural building across the Randselva river to tie the area together and create a natural circulation for a continuous art tour through the park.

Completed in 2019, The Twist is conceived as a beam, warped 90 degrees to create a sculptural form within the park and connect the two riverbanks: a museum, bridge and sculpture in one.

"The Twist is a hybrid spanning several traditional categories: it’s a museum, it’s a bridge, it’s an inhabitable sculpture. As a bridge, it reconfigures the sculpture park turning the journey through the park into a continuous loop. As a museum it connects two distinct spaces - an introverted vertical gallery and an extraverted horizontal gallery with panoramic views across the river. A third space is created through the blatant translation between these two galleries creating the namesake twist. The resultant form becomes another sculpture among the sculptures of the park."

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

BRIDGING — The total required building volume is placed as a bridge spanning the Randselva river, connecting the two sides.

TWISTING — A simple twist in the building volume allows the bridge to lift from the relatively lower forested area towards the south, up to the hillside area in the north.

VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL GALLERIES — A series of generic gallery spaces are created: stacked vertical galleries to the south and the large horizontal, open gallery to the north.

CONTEXTUAL GALLERIES — The twisted geometry in the middle of the building merges the vertical and horizontal in a single motion, reflecting the landscape.

The museum is placed as an abstract shape in the landscape. Its sculptural form is spanning between perfect geometry and specific bridge technology: on one side, it’s a simple box structure; on the other side, it’s a huge warping sculpture. A simple twist in the building volume allows the bridge to lift from the relatively lower forested area towards the south, and up to the hillside area in the north.

As a continuous path in the landscape, both sides of the building serve as the main entrance. From the south entry, visitors cross a 16 m aluminum-clad steel bridge to reach the double-height space, with a clear view to the north end, similarly linked with a 9 m pedestrian bridge.

The double-curve geometry of the museum is comprised of straight 40 cm-wide aluminum panels arranged like a stack of books, shifted ever so slightly in a fanning motion. The same principle is used inside, with white painted 8 cm-wide fir slats cladding the floor, wall, and ceiling as one uniform backdrop for Kistefos’ short-term Norwegian and international exhibitions.

The museum is comprised of a series of generic gallery spaces where, due to the curved form of the glass windows, the variety of daylight entering the museum creates three distinctive galleries. Stacked vertical, dark galleries with artificial lighting are found to the south, and a large horizontal, naturally-lit gallery with panoramic views is located on the north side. In between these spaces is the sculptural gesture, creating a twisted sliver of roof light.

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From either direction, visitors experience the twisted gallery as though walking through a camera shutter. The ability to compartmentalize, divide, or merge the gallery spaces creates flexibility for Kistefos’ artistic programming.

The main entrance to the building is from the south, with the information center and visitor facilities such as a cloak and locker room, museum shop, and restrooms located nearby. From this entrance, there is a clear view to the other end of the building, including the sloping gallery which is located along the main circulation ramp – guiding visitors to the panoramic gallery.

The panoramic gallery is a large open space suitable for sculptures and large installations, with the ability to be subdivided for special occasions and events. On the north end, a full-height glass wall offering panoramic views to the pulp mill and river tapers while curving upwards to form a 25 cm-wide strip of skylight. A café is situated at this end of the gallery, where guests can enjoy snacks while taking in the view of the historic pulp mill and surrounding landscape. During the summer months, the café service area spills onto the plateau just outside.

WEST ELEVATION

LONGITUDINAL SECTION

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

A glass stairway leads down to the museum’s lower level on the north river embankment, where the building’s aluminum underside becomes the ceiling for the basement and restroom area. Another full-width glass wall brings visitors even closer to the river below, enhancing the overall immersive experience of being in the idyllic woodlands just outside of Oslo.

The art delivery and reception area is shared with the main entrance. Art can be delivered discreetly and securely after hours, and the art shipping crates are stored in the exhibition storage room once the art has been installed in its respective gallery.

Bjarke Ingels Finn Nørkjær David Zahle Jakob Lange Brian Yang Catherine Huang Casey Tucker Aimee Louise Desert Alberto Menegazzo Aleksandra Domian Alessandro Zanini Andre Enrico Cassettari Zanolla Brage Hult Carlos Ramos Tenorio Channam Lei Christian Eugenius Kuczynski Claus Rytter Bruun de Neergaard Dag Præstegaard Edda Steingrimsdottir Espen Vik Eva Seo-Andersen Frederik Lyng Joanna M. Lesna Kamilla Heskje Katrine Juul Kekoa Charlot Kei Atsumi Kristoffer Negendahl Lasse Lyhne-Hansen Lone Fenger Albrechtsen Mads Mathias Pedersen Mael Joseph Jaques Barbe Martino Hutz Matteo Dragone Maxime Le Droupeet Mikkel Marcker Stubgaard Naysan John Foroudi Nick Adriaan Huizenga Norbert Nadudvari Ovidiu Munteanu Rasmus Rosenblad Rihards Dzelme Roberto Fabbri Ryohei Koike Sofiia Rokhmaniko Steen Kortbæk Svendsen Sunwoong Choi Tomas Karl Ramstrand Tommy Bjørnstrup Tore Banke Tyrone Cobcroft Ulla Hornsyld Xin Chen Carlos Suriñach Penella Alina Tamosiunaite Balaj Alin Iulian Christian Dahl David Tao Marcelina Kolasinska Richard Mui Tiina Liisa Juuti Ola Sobczyk

AWARDS

LCD Berlin Leading Culture Destinations of the Year Award, 2020

Building Awards International Project of the Year, 2020

Architizer A+ Awards Architecture + Engineering Jury Winner, 2020

Architizer A+ Awards Gallery & Exhibitions Jury and Popular Winner, 2020

COLLABORATORS

AKT II
ÅF-Belysning
AS Byggeanalyse
Baumetall/Zambelli Group
Bladt Industries
Brekke & Strand
David Langdon
DIFK
ECT
Element Arkitekter
Erichsen & Horgen
Fokus Rådgivning
GCAM
Grindaker
Lüchinger&Meyer
Max Fordham
MIR
Rambøll
BIG Ideas

UAE International Horticultural Expo Pavilion

DOHA, QATAR

UAE International Horticultural Expo Pavilion

DOHA, QATAR

2023

CLIENT

UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation and the National Projects Office

TYPOLOGY

Culture

SIZE M2/FT2

450 / 4,800

STATUS

COMPLETED

The UAE Pavilion at the 2023 International Horticultural Expo in Doha, Qatar is designed to showcase the region’s environmental preservation and agricultural innovation.

Inspired by the deep roots and intertwined branches of the local Ghaf Tree, the pavilion is conceived as a dome-shape, gradually rising towards its center. Its rammed earth structure frames a series of exhibition galleries and 32 gardens, creating an immersive experience of the UAE’s diverse landscape from desert to oasis, and sea to the mountains.

“The UAE Pavilion draws on the natural systems and centuries-old vernacular architecture of the UAE to respond to the world’s current climate challenges. Inspired by the deep roots and intertwined branches of the drought resistant Ghaf Tree, the Pavilion is designed as a network of rammed earth walls framing a series of exhibition galleries and gardens of indigenous species. Walls, floors and roofs are formed by soil, stone and vegetation, creating a physical link to the ground they come from. Meandering paths lead to an outdoor oasis, which is organized as a series of thematic gardens that explore the power of plants as a source of food, health and energy. By weaving together architecture and landscape into a seamless experience, the UAE Pavilion shares the story of humanity’s inseparable bonds with nature."

Giulia Frittoli — Partner & Head of BIG Landscape, BIG

A network of paths within the pavilion takes the visitors on a journey through thematic gardens that explore the power of plants as a source of food, health, and energy.

The Pavilion is primarily made from locally sourced materials with walls constructed in rammed earth, which includes 90% soil and 10% cement for binding. The roof structure is formed by wooden beams topped with palm leaves for shading and limestone rocks are used for paving surfaces.

Throughout the gardens, guests can explore native and non-native plants that are cultivated or found in the wild. The landscaping and greenhouse include 65 species and 6,609 plants with edible plants, fruit trees, medicinal plants, a bee garden, flowers, spices, shrubs, grasses, industrial plants, and perennials. The greenhouse is filled with fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, bell peppers, figs, and citrus fruits. The plants are selected to highlight species that contribute to the UAE’s agricultural legacy, from past, to present and future.

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Bjarke Ingels Jakob Lange Andrea Hektor Malka Logo Nicolas Vincent Robert Carlier Xavier Thanki Søren Martinussen Giulia Frittoli Bartłomiej Lew Dace Gurecka Jae Yoon Lee Jan-Hendrik Schrader Thomas Lejeune Mónica Galiana Rodriquez Jens Max Jensen Jesús Fernández Fraile Sofia Papadopoulou Giancarlo Albarello Herrera Anna Beatrice Maria Ambrosi Rihab Soukkarieh Hansen Zhu Kannan Selvaraj Alvaro Novás Filgueira Seyederfan Masoumzadeh Nouran Wael Mohamed Rashad Mohamed Sherif Marco Sartoretto Zhiyuan Zhang Carrie Tam

AWARDS

International Horticultural Expo 2023: Gold for Self-Built Pavilion

COLLABORATORS

Conmarble Design Studio
Atelier Brückner
Mace
CEG

Athletics Las Vegas Ballpark

LAS VEGAS, UNITED STATES

Athletics Las Vegas Ballpark

LAS VEGAS, UNITED STATES

2024

CLIENT

Athletics

TYPOLOGY

Sports

STATUS

IN DESIGN

The new ballpark for the Athletics Major League Baseball team in Las Vegas, Nevada will echo the vibrancy of the ‘Entertainment Capital of the World,’ exuding an outdoor feel with panoramic views of the city’s skyline.

Situated on the Las Vegas Strip, the new home for the Athletics – a 33,000-capacity covered ballpark designed by BIG in collaboration with HNTB – will sit on nine acres between Tropicana Avenue and Reno Avenue. The project builds on a longstanding collaboration between BIG and the Athletics dating back to a different ballpark design in Oakland, California in 2018.

The new ballpark’s roof is accentuated by five overlapping shells resembling baseball pennants, paying homage to the sport. For players, these arched “pennants” will attenuate direct sunlight glare while welcoming indirect natural light through northern oriented clerestory windows.

The domed ballpark is designed to feature the world’s largest cable net glass wall. The structure’s exterior metal cladding shimmers in the natural daylight and reflects the surrounding Las Vegas lights at night.

"BIG's revolutionary design, created in collaboration with HNTB, represents a captivating ballpark concept, seamlessly blending innovation and technology with an enhanced fan experience. We are very excited to share the work of our design team with the entire Southern Nevada community."

John Fisher — Managing Partner & Owner, Athletics

“Our design for the new Vegas home for the A’s is conceived in response to the unique culture and climate of the city. Five pennant arches enclose the ballpark - shading from the Nevada sun while opening to the soft daylight from the north. A giant window frames a majestic view of the life of The Strip and the iconic New York New York hotel skyline. All direct sunlight is blocked, while all the soft daylight is allowed to wash the field in natural light. The resultant architecture is like a spherical armadillo - shaped by the local climate - while opening and inviting the life of The Strip to enter and explore. In the city of spectacle, the A’s ‘armadillo’ is designed for passive shading and natural light - the architectural response to the Nevada climate generating a new kind of vernacular icon in Vegas.”

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

An elevated outdoor plaza connects to the bridges over Las Vegas and Tropicana Boulevards, directing fans to the ballpark’s main concourse, where a large glass atrium pulls the city into the venue. This entrance sequence will immediately orient fans in the ballpark, allowing views of the entire field and seating bowl upon entry while optimizing wayfinding and circulation.

Secondary north and south entrances are marked by “bouncing” arches to increase visitor accessibility and promote a connection to the outdoors. Once inside, fans are met with bright, open atria, which will also serve as multipurpose exhibition spaces to showcase international and local artists.

The Athletics Ballpark is an immersive fan experience. Its tiered design and intimacy, inspired by historic ballparks like Fenway and Wrigley – with split upper and lower bowls – bring fans closer to the action than traditional ballparks and provide clear sight lines from every seat.

The ballpark is currently designed to feature an 18,000-sq-ft jumbotron, which would make it the largest screen in Major League Baseball. An air-conditioning system distributes at the seats rather than from above, making cooling more efficient and energy conscious.

The Athletics Ballpark will have the potential to double as a venue for hosting concerts, conferences and other events. Future development is expected to surround the venue, including an onsite hotel and casino.

The ballpark has an expected opening date of spring 2028.

Bjarke Ingels Daniel Sundlin Leon Rost Aran Coakley Margaret Tyrpa Ricardo Palma Prieto Thomas McMurtrie Bernardo Schuhmacher Douglass Alligood Ema Hristova Bakalova Frankie Sharpe Don Chen Alan Maedo Jan Klaska Luca McLaughlin Catrina Nelson Ahmad Tabbakh Jeff Yinong Tao Hudson Parris Ashley O'Neill Matthew Lau Sunghwan Um Hongye Wu Pooya Aledavood Paul Heberle Yuzaburo Tanaka

COLLABORATORS

HNTB
Thornton Tomasetti
Henderson Engineers
CAA ICON
Mortenson
McCarthy
Atelier Ten
RWDI
Kimley-Horn
Systematica
WJHW
Jensen Hughs
HKA
WSP
FP&C
Chicago Flyhouse
Duray Duncan
Ed Roether Consulting
Morean
Negativ
Mir

Museum for Paper Art

JAMMERBUGT, DENMARK

Museum for Paper Art

JAMMERBUGT, DENMARK

2024

TYPOLOGY

Culture

SIZE M2/FT2

2,500 / 26,910

STATUS

IN DESIGN

BIG is set to transform a former supermarket building into the new Museum for Paper Art in the North Jutland region of Denmark. The current 900 m2 museum space, located in a former Aldi supermarket, will be transformed and expanded to double the museum’s annual number of visitors as well as embrace paper as an art form and expertise. BIG reimagines the museum as a 2300 m2 building building with space for workshops, events, teaching rooms, storage, and office facilities.

The adaptive reuse project is pursuing DGNB Gold or Platinum certification.

The Museum for Paper Art is conceived as a new lightweight roof structure. Like a single sheet of paper, the roof lands on the existing building and creates space for the new functions around it – uniting the new and old under one roof. The existing building walls will get a new acoustic-regulating layer of paper art on the exterior, inspired by origami and designed in collaboration with several paper artists.

“Paper art is deeply embedded in our cultural heritage, showcased through Denmark's paper art tradition through iconic designs such as Le Klint's folding lamps and H.C. Andersen's paper clips. Carrying this legacy into the future is something that this museum has at its heart. We are also proud of recycling an existing building.”

Karen Bit Vejle — Museum Director and Artist

EXISTING BUILDING

PREPARING FOR EXTENSION — Parts of the existing structure will be removed to allow the extension of new museum spaces.

SIMPLIFIED VOLUME — The result is a pure gable volume that retains the existing structural elements and the exhibition inside.

EXTENSION PROGRAM — The project proposes extending the museum to the eastern side of the site to include public programs.

PAPER-LIKE ROOF — To unify old and new programs, activities, and areas, a light paper-like roof structure is proposed.

FOLDED PAPER-LIKE ROOF — The roof lands on the site, folding at the edge of the existing gable to respect the old building underneath.

STRUCTURE — The structure is primarily made of timber beams laid in a simple grid system.

RAINWATER COLLECTION — The curves on the roof serve to efficiently channel rainwater into an outdoor pond.

LANDSCAPE — The project proposes a landscape design inspired by the local dune landscapes with its undulating forms and shifting patterns as well as the flowing, intricate designs found in paper art.

Inside, the focal point of the museum is reflected in the architecture as surfaces are draped with a timber construction made from the wood that is used to make paper.

“Paper art is about creating three-dimensional shapes and complex images from a monochromatic two-dimensional material - a sheet of paper. By treating the roof surface as such - a single sheet of folded paper - existing and new functions are brought together in one unifying gesture. The expressive is accentuated by the clear, complexity arises from simplicity. And an obsolete supermarket finds new life under the floating curved roof."

Bjarke Ingels — Founder and Creative Director, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group

The Museum for Paper Art will offer spaces for a variety of public activities. A meandering path with plants and trees native to the area will invite the public to explore the surroundings and create a welcoming public realm to pull the visitors into the museum.

Bjarke Ingels David Zahle Mantas Povilaika Tomas Karl Ramstrand Kai-Brith Kalda Kannan Selvaraj Jesper Ullbing Matthew Goodwill Neele Maree Ohlrogge

Claremont McKenna College

CLAREMONT, UNITED STATES

Claremont McKenna College

CLAREMONT, UNITED STATES

CLIENT

Claremont McKenna College

TYPOLOGY

Education

SIZE M2/FT2

12,542 / 135,000

STATUS

IN CONSTRUCTION

In September 2022, Claremont McKenna College – one of the top U.S. liberal arts colleges – broke ground on its 135,000 sq ft Robert Day Sciences Center. It will be home for the College’s next-generation Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences – a powerful, multi-disciplinary, computational approach to advance gene, brain, and climate knowledge.

Expected to complete in 2025, the Robert Day Sciences Center launches a series of campus developments and improvements to prepare Claremont McKenna for its next chapter, and represents an educational evolution in how the College will prepare its students – one that deliberately and coherently integrates sciences and computation with the humanities and social sciences to address big thematic priorities in scientific discovery and application.

The building’s structure is designed as a stack of two volumes, or rectangle ‘blocks’ – two per floor – with each pair rotated 45 degrees from the floor below. The exterior facade uses board-formed panels of glass fiber reinforced concrete, which create a wood-like texture.

On the interior, each individual volume is expressed as a rectangular wood-clad truss on the long edges, and as a floor-to-ceiling glass facade on the shorter sides. The continual rotation of each floor creates a sky-lit, central atrium at the heart of the building that provides direct views into classrooms and research spaces from all levels.

Students, professors, staff, and visitors will be able to access the new center from two main entrances – at the ground floor and the first floor – located at different elevations due to the north-south slope of the campus. Students entering through the south side will be met by a cafe and the open auditorium’s grand staircase that leads up towards the atrium. The full-height atrium with open spaces invite collaborative activity – embodying both the architectural and educational approach of the center.

Extending the Mall — The ground floor consists of two volumes aligned with the mall to continue it into the building.

Connected Entrances — A giant staircase for informal seating dips down at the heart of the building to create a connection to the promenade entrance.

Stacked Disciplines — Each floor is rotated 45 degrees more than the one below to create a stack of diverse program ranging from classrooms to laboratories.

Atrium — The full height atrium functions as a meeting and interaction space for students and faculty.

Terraces — The building features eight outdoor terraces. Four are directly adjacent to the atrium and function as social outdoor spaces.

Integrated Science — The building offers views in, out and in between classroom and lab spaces to inspire future scientists at CMC.

“The confluence of previously distinct disciplines: breakthroughs in computer and data science lead to breakthroughs in the natural and life sciences. The architecture for the new Robert Day Sciences Center seeks to maximize this integration and interaction of these previously siloed sciences. The labs and classrooms are stacked in a Jenga-like composition framing a column-free, open internal space with the freedom and flexibility to adapt the ever-evolving demands of technology and science. Each level of the building is oriented towards a different direction of the campus, channeling the flow of people and ideas between the labs and the classrooms as well as externally between the integrated sciences and the rest of the campus. It is our hope that the building will provoke new conversations between scientists and also stimulate the rest of the liberal arts students to take a deeper interest in the sciences and vice versa. The analytical embracing the experimental – rationality intersecting with creativity.”

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

The instructional and research spaces are organized around the perimeter of the building – providing classrooms with picturesque views while keeping the quieter instructional spaces farther away from the more social atrium. Overall, the interior’s materiality is defined by the marriage of the warm wood cladding, concrete floors, and functional research surfaces found within the integrated sciences labs.

Eight outdoor roof terraces located on the corner perimeters of each ‘bar’ offer sweeping 360-degree views of the mountains to the north, the campus to the west, and the Roberts Campus to the east. Designed with a mix of hardscape and softscape areas featuring native plantings, these “green roof” spaces are multi functional, designed to be used for outdoor classrooms, study areas, or places to meet classmates and professors.

Approximately 9,000 SF of solar panels on the Robert Day Sciences Center roof will provide between 200-230 megawatt hours of energy production per year.

“Today more than ever, an interdisciplinary approach to the sciences is vital to tackling the world’s biggest challenges such as health, climate, and misinformation. By literally stacking disciplines together, the building becomes an expression of collaboration and a crossroads for scientific thought. The parallel wings extend the historical framework of the campus mall, then pivot diagonally to face the future of the CMC campus expansion.”

Leon Rost — Partner, BIG

With views of Mt. Baldy, the building is positioned on the eastern edge of Claremont McKenna College, at the corner of Ninth Street and Claremont Boulevard – creating a strong gateway to the campus. This strategic position will facilitate strong connections to other academic departments on campus.

Bjarke Ingels Beat Schenk Leon Rost Alvaro Velosa Amir Mikhaeil Aran Coakley David Iseri David Holbrook Gary Polk Jan Leenknegt Kam Chi Cheng Lorenz Krisai Melody Hwang Minjung Ku Neha Sadruddin Peter Sepassi Ryan Duval Seung Ho Shin Sue Biolsi Terrence Chew Thomas McMurtrie Tracy Sodder Won Ryu Bella Yanan Ding Alex Wu Emily Chen Carlos Castillo Casey Tucker Chris Tron Dylan Hames Francesca Portesine Janie Green Bernardo Schuhmacher Jose Lacruz Vela Alan Maedo Gus Steyer Montre'ale Jones Ana Luisa Pedreira Ololade Owolabi Ahmad Tabbakh Bianca Blanari Yasamin Mayyas Sinam Hawro Yakoob Joseph Veliz Angela Lufkin Pooya Aledavood

COLLABORATORS

Saiful Bouquet
Acco Engineered Systems
Atlas Civil Design
MRY
Rosendin Electric
WSP USA
Jacobs
ARUP
KGM Architectural Lighting
Heintges
KOA
EWCG
KPRS
Herrick
Misty Gonzalez
IDS
Kleinfelder
Salamander
Code Consultants Inc

National Juneteenth Museum

FORT WORTH, UNITED STATES

National Juneteenth Museum

FORT WORTH, UNITED STATES

2021

CLIENT

Juneteenth Museum

TYPOLOGY

Culture

SIZE M2/FT2

7061 / 76,000

STATUS

IN DESIGN

With ‘The Grandmother of Juneteenth,’ Ms. Opal Lee, at the helm, the National Juneteenth Museum is dedicated to preserving the history of Juneteenth and legacy of freedom. Declared a federal holiday in the U.S. on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act with Ms. Lee by his side, Juneteenth (June 19th) commemorates the Emancipation Proclamation’s enforcement and the liberation of the remainder of the enslaved both in Texas and throughout the newly reformed United States, which happened on June 19, 1865.

Located in the Historic Southside of Fort Worth, Texas which was divided by the I-35W highway in the 1960s and is one of the South’s most underserved communities – The National Juneteenth Museum will be the epicenter for the education, preservation and celebration of Juneteenth nationally and globally, hosting exhibitions, discussions, and events about the significance of African American freedom. The new 76,000 square foot building is designed by BIG alongside architect-of-record KAI Enterprises.

“Seeing the national museum moving forward is a dream fulfilled. I’ve had a little Juneteenth Museum in that very spot for almost 20 years, and to see it become a central place for discussion, collaboration and learning seems to be the providential next step – from my walking campaign to Washington, D.C., the petition, and having Juneteenth declared a federal holiday. It’s mind-boggling, but I’m glad to see it all come to pass.”

Ms. Opal Lee — Founding Board Member, National Juneteenth Museum

The National Juneteenth Museum, designed in close collaboration with the local Fort Worth community, seeks to provide a cultural and economic anchor for this neighborhood and act as a catalyst for ensuring its future vitality, including immersive galleries, a business incubator, food hall for local vendors, Black Box flex space, and a theater.

The museum’s undulating roof creates a series of ridges, peaks, and valleys of varying heights that combine to create a ‘nova star’ shaped courtyard in the middle of the museum. Meaning ‘new star,’ the nova star represents a new chapter for the African Americans looking ahead towards a more just future. The publicly accessible courtyard will be the anchor for the museum and its activities. At the center of the courtyard, the ‘five point’ star is engraved into the terrazzo pavement. In addition to representing Texas, the last state to adopt and acknowledge the freedom of African American slaves – the star nods to the American flag’s 50 stars that represent all 50 U.S states, representing the freedom of African Americans across the country.

SYMBOLIC VERNACULAR — The Juneteenth Flag consists of four symbolic elements: the star in the center, representing the Lone Star State - the final state to enforce freedom for all; the Nova, bursting around the star, symbolizing a new beginning for African Americans; the arc, which represents a new horizon of opportunities and promise; and the colors of red, white, and blue, which are a reminder that enslaved people and their descendants were and are Americans.

From Symbol to Form — The narrow residential typology is commonly found in African American communities throughout the southern United States. Their exterior characteristics include a gabled roof and a front porch. The museum’s architectural form combines this local typology with the Nova found on the Juneteenth Flag.

Historic Southside Neighborhood — The museum is located at the intersection of Evans Avenue and Rosedale Street in the Historic Southside neighborhood of Fort Worth.

Entry Portals — The peak heights of the roof vary to provide intuitive way finding and unique character for each space. The two tallest bays are covered outdoor pedestrian entrances, providing shaded access to the museum from the north and south.

Porches — Each gabled bay has an exterior porch that serves as covered outdoor space for each of the programs.

Solar Roof — The roof is clad in photovoltaic panels to harness the energy of the Texas sun.

National Juneteenth Museum — More than a museum, the cultural center comprises a food hall, business incubator, theater, event space and curatorial exhibition space. A radiating paving pattern of tinted concrete with Texan stone aggregate in various tones welcomes visitors and emits the spirit of jubilation throughout the neighborhood.

While five street-level entrances allow the galleries and exhibitions to be accessed as individual spaces, two publicly-accessible covered ‘portals’ connect directly to the courtyard and main gallery entrances, welcoming visitors from both the north and the southwest of the site via generous entryways defined by warm, vibrant colors. The mass timber structure that defines the design’s materiality continues into the interior, visually connecting the two realms.

In addition to this visual continuity of the materiality, the building’s public and private realms are also interconnected through the museum’s circular layout; on the ground floor, the two portals that connect to the courtyard are flanked by each of the programs: one portion of the galleries, the business incubator, food hall for local vendors, Black Box flex space, and theatre. To access the museum galleries, which begin on the ground floor, guests enter the generous reception area, and are guided to the light-filled mezzanine level via staircase or wheelchair-accessible elevator.

“The National Juneteenth Museum came to BIG looking for a design that captures the social, cultural, and spiritual importance of Juneteenth celebrations for black people while expressing its historic significance and relevance to all Americans. Our hope is that this building will become a gateway to the Historic Southside community of Fort Worth while serving as a national and global destination. Our engagement with Ms. Opal Lee and members of the community, to really understand their needs, is what informed a lot of the design principles. As a black architect, this project is one of the most rewarding experiences of my career.”

Douglass Alligood — Partner, BIG

The mezzanine level reveals the rest of the gallery spaces, which are connected by a ring of circulation that wraps the courtyard. Glass is utilized as the interior wall of both the ground and mezzanine floors to create a sense of openness and transparency while complementing the pared-back timber and concrete materials. Similarly, the ‘nova star’ cut out of the roof at the center of the building of which the mezzanine wraps around allows light to travel through the entire space. Wrapping around the nova star shape above, the mezzanine galleries physically connect each of the programs while being literally elevated – providing visitors an above perspective of the public courtyard below, and those in the courtyard with views of the galleries above.

Outside the museum building, a network of plazas provides wayfinding opportunities, extending the sense of community of the interior to the outdoor spaces. Polished concrete and terrazzo flooring continue out to the exterior spaces, creating visual continuity between the public and private realms. Generous lawns, native landscaping, and wood seating are dispersed throughout the plaza areas, providing places for outdoor exhibitions, large-scale installations and gatherings.

Bjarke Ingels Daniel Sundlin Alejandra Cortes Alvaro Velosa Florencia Kratsman Linus Saavedra Marcus Wilford Terrence Chew Andrea Hektor Douglass Alligood Mama Qicheng Wu Yumiko Matsubara Montre'ale Jones Ololade Owolabi Pooja Annamaneni Abdur-Rahman Harunah Yasamin Mayyas Foad Sarsangi

COLLABORATORS

KAI Enterprises
EDSA
StructureCraft
GreeNexus Consulting
WSP
KAI Engineering
Simon Engineering
Local Projects
Vermeulens

The Plus

MAGNOR, NORWAY

The Plus

MAGNOR, NORWAY

2022

CLIENT

Vestre A/S

TYPOLOGY

Infrastructure

SIZE M2/FT2

7,000 / 75,000

STATUS

COMPLETED

Designed for furniture manufacturer Vestre, The Plus is a factory, visitor center, and 300-acre park located in Magnor, Norway near Vestre’s HQ and steel factory. Norway’s single largest investment in the furniture industry in decades, the 7,000 m2 production facility is dedicated to the cleanest carbon-neutral fabrication of urban furniture in the world.

Constructed in just 18 months, the building is made of local mass timber, low-carbon concrete, and recycled steel, and is set to become the first industrial building to achieve the highest environmental BREEAM Outstanding rating. The factory doubles as a public park for hiking and camping and aligns with the region’s mission to establish a green manufacturing hub outside of Oslo.

PROGRAM — Four factory halls are arranged radially to meet each other at the center. This formation allows short distances between each production wing and an opportunity to extend them in the future.

ROUNDABOUT — At the center, a logistical roundabout coordinates the traffic between the factory halls. Assembly lines, forklifts and people move in an organized flow around a central courtyard.

OFFICE + EXPERIENCE CENTER — The office and exhibition center are placed at the heart of the factory above the logistical roundabout. Elevating them creates a panoramic overview without disturbing the production flow.

RECIPROCAL ROOF — Each production wing has a lifted roof corner to integrate the office and exhibition center into the main building envelope. As such, the office keeps the forest views while gaining views into each production hall.

PUBLIC COURTYARD — The placement of the roundabout creates an outdoor courtyard which marks the heart of the factory. It is conceived as a green yet urban public plaza to display Vestre's latest furniture collections.

GREEN ROOF — The forest floor is lifted to the rooftop. Native seedlings and plants from the site have been cultivated and replanted to cover the factory's roof.

24/7 ACCESS — Based on the Norwegian "Allemannsretten", the roof and the courtyard are accessible 24/7 all year round. Two staircases with views into the factory and an ADA friendly forest path lead up to the public roof. A slide ensures a fast track back to the ground.

The Plus is conceived as a radial array of four main production halls – a warehouse, color factory, wood factory, and the assembly – that connect at the center and generate the ‘plus’ shape at its intersection. The layout enables an efficient, flexible, and transparent workflow between the manufacturing units and an intuitive visitor experience.

Like a flowchart, the entire interior is organized with the color of each machine overflowing to the floors. Exploring The Plus feels like moving through an archipelago of colorful islands where the experience and overview of the factory’s activities are unified.

Inside the factories, each wing has one alternating ceiling corner lifted to create inclined roofs that allow views into the production halls as well as the forest outside. Along the color and wood factory, the sloping roofs are extended to form a pathway for visitors and staff to hike up and down the building while observing the production processes inside. All four production units are built with 21 m free-spanning, cross-laminated timber, creating flexible column free–spaces.

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"The radical transparency invites visitors and hikers to enjoy the whole process of creation while providing Vestre’s team with the thrill of working in the middle of the forest. To us, The Plus is a crystal-clear example of Hedonistic Sustainability - showing us how our sustainable future will not only be better for the environment, but also more beautiful to work in and more fun to visit."

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

From all four sides of the buildings, visitors and staff will be invited to hike around the facility and end their walk on the roof. Here, 900 photovoltaic panels are placed and angled according to optimal solar efficiency while effective construction and materials methods, rainwater collection systems, heat and cooling systems, green roofs, and electric vehicles contribute to ca 90% lower energy demand than that of a conventional factory. An ADA-accessible ramp will allow wheelchairs and strollers to enjoy the serpentine path and the experience of being surrounded by pine trees on all sides.

All materials were carefully selected for their environmental impact, with the façade constructed from local timber, low-carbon concrete, and recycled reinforcement steel.
Every aspect of the design is based on principles of renewable and clean energy to match Vestre’s eco-friendly production, such as ensuring a minimum of 50% lower greenhouse gas emissions than comparable factories.

The heart of The Plus draws visitors into the exhibition centers Vestre Energy and Clean Water Center where the public can learn about energy, water and circular design. A logistics office with direct connections to all four production halls allows Vestre’s team to process logistical traffic with maximum efficiency. The central hub wraps around a public, circular courtyard where the latest outdoor furniture collections are displayed according to the changing seasons. The courtyard doubles as a panopticon for visitors and staff to fully experience the factory’s production processes.

"Playfulness, democracy, and sustainability are at the heart of the Vestre brand and everything they do; our wooden, colorful factory in the middle of the Norwegian woods - surrounded by a 300,000 m2 public forest park where the local community can come to experience the gigantic Vestre furniture pieces sprinkled throughout - lives and breathes this philosophy."

David Zahle — Partner, BIG

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Proving that production can be sustainable and profitable even in a high-cost country like Norway, The Plus – a hybrid of a transparent and open production facility, a public park, and a literal green landmark for the manufacturing industry – exemplifies how advancements in fabrication and manufacturing can help shape both the factories of the future, and the way we experience them.

Bjarke Ingels David Zahle Ole Elkjær-Larsen Agnieszka Wardzińska Alexander Jacobson Andrea Hektor Andy Coward Ariana Ribas Ariana Szmedra Bjarke Koch-Ørvad Camille Breuil Cæcilie Søs Brandt-Olsen Claudia Bertolotti Duncan Horswill Eduardo Javier Sosa Trevino Eva Seo-Andersen Ewa Zapiec Filip Fot Frederic Lucien Engasser Frederik Skou Jensen Jens Majdal Kaarsholm Jesper Kanstrup Petersen Julia Novaes Tabet Julien Bernard Jacques Picard Julius Victor Schneevoigt Kaoan Hengles De Lima Katrine Juul Katrine Sandstrøm Kristoffer Negendahl Ksenia Zhitomirskaya Luca Pileri Magni Waltersson Miles Treacy Nanna Gyldholm Møller Neringa Jurkonyte Ningnan Ye Palita Tungjaroen Paula Madrid Rron Bexheti Steen Kortbæk Svendsen Thor Larsen-Lechuga Tobias Hjortdal Tommy Bjørnstrup Tore Banke Tristan Harvey Ulla Hornsyld Viktoria Millentrup Xingyue Huang Zuzanna Eugenia Montwill Ákos Márk Horváth Jean-Sébastien Pagnon Andreas Bak Cheng-Huang Lin Giulia Frittoli Sui King Yu Jenna Hukkinen Marcel Götz Jonas Rask Edward Durie

AWARDS

BREEAM Awards, Best New Building, 2024

DOGA-merket for Architecture and Design, 2023

Scandinavian Design Awards for Architecture of the Year, 2023

DETAIL Reader's Choice Awards, 2022

Interior Design Magazine Best of Year Awards for Greater World Sustainability, 2022

COLLABORATORS

Bollinger+Grohmann
Gade & Mortensen
Nordic Architects AS
Asplan Viak
Erichsen og Horgen AS
Norconsult AS
Foyn Consult AS
Fokus Rådgivning
Multiconsult AS
ØM Fjeld AS
Woodcon AS
Reflex
Hallas AS
Loe VVS Prosjekt AS
Cowi AS
Fokus Rad AS
Melby Maskin AS
EMV Construction AS
YC ROR AS
Energima Prosjekt SA
Minel Elinstallasjon US
Solcellespesialisten AS
TKS Heiser AS
Bygganalyse AS
Evotek AS

Lonestar Data Center

2024

CLIENT

Lonestar Data Holdings

TYPOLOGY

Products

STATUS

COMPLETED

Traditional data centers account for about 1% of global electricity consumption and up to 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions – with an expected 50% increase in their electrical footprint by 2025.

In collaboration with Lonestar Data Holdings, BIG designed a 3D-printed data center to travel to the Moon on a future NASA space mission – marking the first time that data will be stored on the Moon and signifying the initial step in space becoming a recognized home for data management.

The equipment – nicknamed the Freedom Payload and measuring 26 x 17 cm – can store up to eight terabytes of data and will be entirely solar-powered. The device is designed to feature the profiles of two U.S. astronauts – Charlie Duke and Nicole Stott – whose faces will cast changing shadows on the Moon throughout the day.

The space mission will last one Moon day, the equivalent to 14 Earth days. The data center will rely on solar energy during the lunar day and will cease operation at lunar nightfall, while the profiles of Duke and Stott continue to leave an everlasting shadow on the surface of the Moon.

The Lonestar Data Center is representative of both everything that humanity has accomplished in space and how much more opportunity exists. By storing data on the Moon, we can create a greener future here on Earth.

Bjarke Ingels Martin Voelkle Jakob Lange Jason Wu Linus Saavedra Philip Andersson Tom Pracert Schrader Jan-Hendrik Schrader

Google Gradient Canopy

MOUNTAIN VIEW, UNITED STATES

Google Gradient Canopy

MOUNTAIN VIEW, UNITED STATES

2023

CLIENT

Google

TYPOLOGY

Work

SIZE M2/FT2

55,277 / 595,000

STATUS

COMPLETED

Situated on an 18-acre site in the North Bayshore area of Mountain View and adjacent to Charleston Park, Google’s Gradient Canopy includes workspace for Googlers and 10,000 sq ft of space open to the public, comprising restaurant, retail and community event spaces. The campus also features the Google Visitor Experience – a new destination for Google employees, visitors and neighbors.

The site has achieved LEED-NC v4 Platinum certification – taking the title from Bay View as being the largest LEED v4 BD+C: NC Platinum-certified project in the world – and is also one of the largest facilities ever to attain the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) Living Building Challenge (LBC) Materials Petal Certification.

On the exterior, the Gradient Canopy building features the same “dragonscale” solar skin roof as Google Bay View, equipped with silver solar panels that use the latest building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) technology and generate approximately 40% of the building’s annual energy use. Coupled with the canopy’s pavilion-like rooflines, the panels capture the power of the sun from multiple angles. Unlike a flat roof, which generates peak power at the same time each day, the dragonscale solar skin generates power for an extended amount of daylight hours.

Like Bay View, Gradient Canopy’s 120-ft canopy rests on cruciform beams. Rather than being segmented by excessive columns and support walls, the structural innovation of the canopy roof allows for a hangar-like typology with a wide-open and connected workspace. Access to natural light and views with reduced glare during working hours were priority design elements, achieved through the use of carefully placed clerestory windows.

Designed from the inside out, the Gradient Canopy building begins with the Googler. By providing glare-free light, fresh filtered air, natural materials, biophilic elements and soothing acoustics, the architecture of Gradient Canopy ensures a happy and productive Googler. The wood-clad interiors of the building are entirely procured from responsibly managed forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and are supported by a steel frame.

The Gradient Canopy building is split across only two floors, with desks and team spaces on the upper level and the amenity spaces below. A variation in floorplates on the upper level offers highly flexible “neighborhoods” for teams, with desks clustered into groups that can be either enclosed within studios using flexible partitions or left open for break-out spaces and other teams. A series of twenty indoor “courtyards” throughout the building connect the two levels, giving teams easy access to cafes, kitchenettes, conference rooms and all-hands spaces. The courtyards also encourage physical movement when circulating between levels and different modes of work, and double as wayfinding devices.

The Gradient Canopy site design and native landscaping provide critical support for wildlife and builds resilience in the landscape. Across the 18-acre site, four acres of which are vegetated, landscape designs mimic natural habitats native to the region yet largely gone from Silicon Valley today. The landscape palette consists primarily of native species, including 380 native trees, while over 90% of the plants at Gradient Canopy provide nectar for native pollinators.

During the construction of Gradient Canopy, an onsite waste management process diverted over 90% of construction waste from landfills, while a closed-loop wallboard initiative meant that 530,000 pounds of drywall waste was recycled. Thousands of materials used at the campus went through a rigorous sourcing and review process using the LBC Red List as a framework to minimize chemicals harmful to human and environmental health.

To promote a circular economy, Gradient Canopy’s design incorporates salvaged materials and 100% FSC-certified timber. Today, a bioretention area captures and filters stormwater and urban runoff that are reused onsite.

Anchored in three themes defined by Google’s design brief – innovation, nature and community – Gradient Canopy provides an opportunity to take human-centered, sustainable design to a new scale. Together, Google, BIG and Heatherwick have created a campus that fosters community and creates a healthy, inclusive space that benefits everyone.

The public plaza in Charleston Park, which will be programmed with public events throughout the year, such as farmers markets, food trucks and live music, connects to the interior community spaces on the west side of Gradient Canopy. The plaza welcomes the public to the Google Visitor Experience and new food and retail outlets, like the West Coast’s first ever Google Store and a year-round neighborhood partnership center.

A casual spot for day-to-day interactions, this neighborhood center hosts a pop-up shop and a range of events and workshops to highlight local small businesses and community organizations. The space offers an inclusive setting for dialogue and learning while serving as a social node for Gradient Canopy and the broader North Bayshore neighborhood.

A pedestrian and bicycle path, part of the larger North Bayshore Green Loop, weaves around the southern portion of the site for Googlers, neighbors and visitors to enjoy the site’s native landscaping, public art and exterior gathering spaces.

Bjarke Ingels Thomas Christoffersen Daniel Sundlin Beat Schenk Leon Rost Blake Smith Jason Wu Corliss Ng David Iseri Florencia Kratsman Guillaume Evain Jan Leenknegt Linus Saavedra Veronica Acosta Melissa Jones Patrick Hyland Pauline Lavie-Luong Rita Sio Ryan Harvey Ryan Duval Sebastian Claussnitzer Shane Dalke Shu Zhao Terrence Chew Xi Zhang Zhonghan Huang Ziad Shehab Deb Campbell Dylan Hames Francesca Portesine Aaron Mark Alice Cladet Anton Bashkaev Armen Menendian Athena Morella Barbara Stallone Bernard Peng Cheyne Owens Christi Farrell Cristian Lera Silva Danielle Kemble Douglass Alligood Filip Milovanovic Gabriel Hernandez Solano Gabriella Den Elzen Gaurav Sardana Helen Shuyang Chen Jennifer Dudgeon Jennifer Kimura Jennifer Wood John Hilmes Jonathan Fournier Joshua Burns Joshua Plourde Kiley Anne Feickert Lina Bondarenko Ludwig Ebert Mahsa Malek Manon Otto Meghan Bean Mirco Amstad Mo Zhou Omer Hadar Pablo Costa Fraiz Pantea Tehrani Patricia Correa Velasquez Peter Kwak Simon David Taylor Fulton Valentina Mele Vincenzo Polsinelli Benjamin Caldwell Dong-Joo Kim Hacken Li Jonathan Pan Luke Lu Sebastian Grogaard Ashley O'Neill

COLLABORATORS

Heatherwick Studio
Adamson
Arup
CCI
EWCG
FMS
Mott MacDonald
Hathaway Dinwiddie
HJLA
HLW
Hortscience
H.T. Harvey Associates
Iris environmental
Kleinfelder
Loisos + Ubbelohde
Sera
Sherwood
Vital
AKT II
Front
Atelier Ten
Devcon
T.S. Krumholz

Freedom Plaza

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES

Freedom Plaza

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES

2023

CLIENT

Soloviev Group and Mohegan

TYPOLOGY

Culture, Civic, Residential, Hospitality, Retail, Urbanism, Space Planning

SIZE M2/FT2

384,548 / 4,139,237

STATUS

IN DESIGN

Freedom Plaza will create a new civic and cultural hub along Manhattan’s East River, just south of the United Nations headquarters. The development will bring a 4.77-acre public waterfront open space to an area historically lacking green space, with plans for an in-park Museum of Freedom and Democracy, much-needed affordable housing, two hotels, retail and restaurants. With a below-grade gaming area connected to the hotels, Freedom Plaza is one of several projects vying for three downstate gaming licenses in and around New York City.

Freedom Plaza will extend BIG’s contribution to New York City’s waterfront, alongside adjacent coastal projects that include the East Side Coastal Resiliency project, the Battery Park City Resiliency project and River Ring in Brooklyn.

“Our plan is to develop this site in a way that delivers benefits for the local neighborhood and the city as a whole, worthy of its skyline and waterfront location, and befitting New York City's key role as a leader in the global cultural economy. We value the community input that we have received throughout the planning process and are proud to help meet the need for residential and affordable housing and public open space, as well as providing a daycare, food market, and an array of new dining and retail offerings.”

Michael Hershman — CEO, Soloviev Group

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The Freedom Plaza towers align with the orthogonal grid of Manhattan to extend the view corridors from Midtown eastward to the East River and Queens. The design respects the celebrated UN complex to the north while also adding playful and sculptural elements to the waterfront. The two residential towers pay homage to modernist New York City buildings of the 1950s and 1960s, with striped glass and aluminum facades connected at the base by a podium that will house a food market and retail. The two hotel towers, clad in a warm metal finish, connect at the roof, creating visual unity between the buildings.

"When Le Corbusier, Niemeyer and Harrison designed the UN Secretariat Building, they grafted an oasis of international modernism onto the dense urban grid of Manhattan, creating a park on the river framed by towers and pavilions. Due to the nature of the work of the UN, access to that park - although open to all nations - remains necessarily restricted, for good reasons. With our design for Freedom Plaza, we continue to build on these architectural principles by uniting three city blocks to form a public green space reaching from 1st Avenue to the East River overlook, creating a green connection all the way to the water's edge. Bookending the park are two pairs of towers, joined at base or top and each framing a corner plaza: one showcasing the life of the city and the other forming an urban gate from the city to the upper park and East River beyond. Balanced on a perch overlooking the river, the Museum of Freedom and Democracy neighbors the towers and celebrates the origin and evolution of one of the most impactful inventions of mankind and our continuous struggle to build, maintain and protect the institutions that uphold it. We are incredibly honored and thrilled to be part of the team that can envision a new major public space in this great city, to contribute to the iconic skyline of Manhattan's riverfront, and to imagine the architecture of the museum celebrating one of mankind's greatest inventions: Democracy."

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

The buildings within Freedom Plaza are placed at the perimeter of the site to maximize space for the multilevel, universally accessible green spaces – roughly the size of Bryant Park – which include a children’s play area, dog run and event lawn with a bandshell for hosting al fresco events. The landscaping is designed to host a native botanical overlay and climate-adaptive species, with gardens providing food and habitat for pollinators year-round. The sculpture program and an amphitheater below the museum will offer cultural experiences for visitors and neighborhood residents alike, while educational programs centered around the native flora and sustainable practices emphasize the park’s commitment to environmental consciousness. Restaurants, a food market, community spaces, a daycare and other amenities line the northern and southern edges of the park.

SITE — The site measures 715 ft north to south and 425 ft east to west. Total surface area is 6.5 acres. Its highest point comes at the northwest corner at +31 ft above sea level and drops to +9 ft to the east side.

CONSTRAINTS — The towers' cores cannot be built above the tunnel crossing at the northwest corner. The underground gaming floor requires an open floor, so no cores will be located there either. No structure should be built inside the easement adjacent to the FDR at ground level.

VIEW CORRIDORS — The towers are placed to protect current view corridors from E 39th St and E 40th St. They are also close to the perimeter in compliance with site constraints and provide large park space in the center.

TOWERS — Two of the towers are residential, reaching 550 ft and 650 ft high. Two towers are hotels, both reaching 615 ft.

BRIDGES — The hotel towers are connected at the top by a cantilevered multistory bridge. The bridge provides extraordinary views of New York City. Hotel amenities are placed in the bridge and shared by both towers. The bottom of the residential towers is connected with a podium that houses a food market and restaurants, and provides access to the park from the corner plaza.

PARK AND MUSEUM — The podium is covered by a 4.77-acre park. The Museum of Freedom and Democracy is placed on top of the park, with views facing the East River. It's cantilevered over a pedestrian pathway and can be accessed from both outside the park and inside the park from the podium. The museum will attract people from across the world and provide a unique experience within the park.

FREEDOM PLAZA — Freedom Plaza is a dynamic mixed-use proposal that not only meets local needs but also provides a world-class destination in the city. The expansive park space brings greenery to Midtown East, while the towers follow the historic grid of New York City and reshape the East River skyline.

At the heart of Freedom Plaza’s green space will be the Museum of Freedom and Democracy. Taking the shape of a Möbius strip, the museum winds on top of itself, allowing for outdoor walking paths. The museum forms a spiraling and infinite geometry over the amphitheater as a symbol of unity, and takes cues from the traditional Greek theater as a nod to those who created democracy thousands of years ago.

“Urban developments of this scale usually feature a multistory podium with parking and inaccessible private amenities on a podium rooftop. Freedom Plaza, however, breaks free from that stereotype by integrating all podium programs such as parking, retail, ballroom, gaming and entertainment below-grade, which allows us to create a generous green space accessible to everyone.”

Martin Voelkle — Partner, BIG

Freedom Plaza intends to be an operational net-zero carbon development. The site is designed to use the East River as a heat sink and heat source to supplement the buildings’ heating, cooling and domestic hot water systems, which will reduce potable water demand by 24.5 million gallons annually. Stormwater capture and retention, as well as the park’s mature trees, will help minimize urban heat island effect. Freedom Plaza will also utilize a minimum of 20% electric vehicle charging stations for its onsite parking with capacity to scale to 60%.

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Freedom Plaza draws inspiration from New York’s many celebrated dual interior-exterior public spaces, including the nearby Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice. As hotel guests arrive, they enter a light-filled “forest atrium” that brings the outdoor public space inside through skylights and floating planters. From this atrium, guests can access the various food and beverage outlets, convention and event spaces, gaming facilities, and street-level retail. To further ease traffic concerns, a special entrance to the resort facility will be established on the 41st Street side of the property.

The two hotel towers connect via a skybridge cantilevered over the East 41st St. and 1st Avenue corner of the site. The skybridge lobby features a dramatic multistory viewing platform with a glass floor and ceiling and the Soloviev Foundation Art Gallery, while a 150,000-gallon infinity pool – one of the largest rooftop pools in North America – will be perched on the roof. Banyan Tree hotel amenities, including a spa and wellness center, restaurants and bars, and private gaming are also located in the bridge interior.

Bjarke Ingels Beat Schenk Martin Voelkle Alvaro Velosa Andreas Buettner Kristian Hindsberg Margaret Tyrpa Otilia Pupezeanu Sang Ha Jung Cheng Zhong Douglass Alligood Jan Klaska Johannes Alexander Hackl Ahmad Tabbakh Will Chuanrui Yu Alejandro Guadarrama Jeff Yinong Tao Brendan Murphy Joanne Zheng Hudson Parris Rafael Alvarez Sparsh Gandhi Youjin Rhee Sunghwan Um Paul Heberle M. Omer Khan Moya Annastacia Kernan Megan Sousa

COLLABORATORS

Langan
Rizzo Brookbridge
Herrick Feinstein
Adamson
Friedmutter Group
OJB Landscape Architecture
Thornton Tomasetti
WSP
HBA

CODEX

2024

CLIENT

ICON

TYPOLOGY

Residential

STATUS

IN DESIGN

CODEX is a digital catalog of ready-to-print homes by construction technology company ICON that was unveiled at the South by Southwest Festival in 2024. The catalog features five 3D-printed home collections each based on a different program, with more than 60 designs across a range of price points.

Within CODEX, BIG designed the weather-resistant Storm and Fire homes, with design elements that mitigate damage and loss due to storms and wildfires; the TexNext collection, which reinterprets four beloved Texan housing typologies; and House One, a 3-bedroom home that celebrates indoor and outdoor living within the Exploration collection.

Every home in CODEX is designed to be 3D printed with ICON’s newest advanced material, CarbonX. When paired with ICON’s wall system and robotic construction methods, the CarbonX formula is the lowest carbon residential building system ready to be used at scale. New collections will continue to be added to CODEX, which aims to be the most extensive digital catalog of buildable home designs in the world.

The Storm collection is ICON’s response to the growing need for hurricane and storm-resilient homes. This series includes aerodynamic 3D-printed forms, elevated sites and impact-resistant windows.

The form finding for Storm included extensive testing and simulation to find the best fluid forms to withstand wind forces. The collection includes two approaches – one design features fully 3D-printed domes while the other includes traditional, non-3D-printed roofs. The Storm Cell homes are conceived as fully 3D-printed envelopes with windows and skylights carved out. Designed to minimize wind pressure and lift forces, the Capsule homes, meanwhile, demonstrate aerodynamic design features to create a circular living experience while ensuring privacy for the bedrooms.

Four-and-a-half million U.S. homes are at high or extreme risk from wildfires. The Fire collection takes advantage of ICON’s 3D-printed wall system’s inherent fire resiliency and adds in additional protective strategies to mitigate the damage and loss due to wildfires. These homes are designed to comply with wildfire prevention practices and feature passive prevention with landscaping plus active protection though noncombustible envelopes and shutters.

CODEX’s TexNext collection honors Texas heritage and its traditional architectural vernacular while reimagining and renewing it for the future. TexNext aims to provide the highest design quality at the lowest price. Each of TexNext’s eight typologies feature design elements typically unavailable for entry-level homes – all made possible through 3D-printing.

A “shotgun house” is a narrow, rectangular residence with rooms arranged one behind the other and doors to the exterior at each end of the home. Known for its affordability and efficient use of space, CODEX’s Shotgun typology is modernized for a unique design made possible only through 3D printing.

The Arc Ranch model elevates indoor/outdoor living to create a seamless and transparent connection from the front to the back of the house. A vaulted ceiling in the central living space adds a sense of openness and grandeur. Dogtrot, a style of home originating in the 19th-century Southern United States, features a central breezeway dividing the house into two living spaces, offering natural ventilation and relief from heat – much like its historic namesake. The Porch house features a spacious, covered porch that wraps around the home’s exterior, providing additional living space and opportunities for outdoor enjoyment.

House One is one of two models within the CODEX Exploration collection demonstrating new, divergent design languages and architectural vernaculars based on the opportunities created by innovative construction-scale 3D-printing.

A three-bedroom luxury home, House One celebrates indoor/outdoor living forming a radially organized floor plan. The design integrates sustainability strategies and utilizes 3D printing in the construction of the foundation, the wall system and roof – providing a fully 3D-printed home. This home also offers a one-bedroom guest house.

CODEX comes on the heels of a longstanding relationship between ICON and BIG, having also worked on projects including the forthcoming El Cosmico in Marfa, Texas and the 3D-printed Wolf Ranch residential development outside of Austin.

Bjarke Ingels Bjarke Ingels Bjarke Ingels Bjarke Ingels Beat Schenk Beat Schenk Beat Schenk Beat Schenk Martin Voelkle Martin Voelkle Martin Voelkle Martin Voelkle Blake Smith Blake Smith Jan Leenknegt Jan Leenknegt Jan Leenknegt Jenna Dezinski Jenna Dezinski Jenna Dezinski Julian Ocampo Salazar Julian Ocampo Salazar Julian Ocampo Salazar Margaret Tyrpa Margaret Tyrpa Margaret Tyrpa Margaret Tyrpa Veronica Acosta Veronica Acosta Veronica Acosta Veronica Acosta Mateo Fernandez Mateo Fernandez Michelle Stromsta Michelle Stromsta Michelle Stromsta Michelle Stromsta Nojan Adami Nojan Adami Oliver Thomas Peter Sepassi Peter Sepassi Peter Sepassi Ricardo Palma Prieto Siqi Zhang Siqi Zhang Siqi Zhang Thomas McMurtrie Thomas McMurtrie Thomas McMurtrie Won Ryu Cheng Zhong Cheng Zhong Cheng Zhong Chia-Yu Liu Isela Liu Jialin Yuan Jialin Yuan Alexander Jacobson Alexander Jacobson Andrea Hektor Andrea Hektor Andrea Hektor Ema Hristova Bakalova Jonathan Russell Mengzhu Jiang Mengzhu Jiang Mengzhu Jiang Zuzanna Eugenia Montwill Juan Diego Perez Diez Juan Diego Perez Diez Karim Daw Alan Maedo Alan Maedo Jaeho Park Jaeho Park Jaeho Park Jeremy Jackson Jeremy Jackson Ahmad Tabbakh Ahmad Tabbakh Ahmad Tabbakh Ahmad Tabbakh Cynthia Wang Cynthia Wang Cynthia Wang Cynthia Wang Hudson Parris Vi Madrazo San Yoon Ashley O'Neill Ashley O'Neill Ashley O'Neill Matthew Lau Ana Gabriela Loayza Ana Gabriela Loayza Ana Gabriela Loayza Daniela Morin Daniela Morin Paul Heberle Mana Ikebe Nai Wong Artem Chouliak Artem Chouliak Artem Chouliak

COLLABORATORS

Storm Collaborators:
STG Design
WGI Engineering
FORT Structures
ICON

Fire Collaborators:
ICON

TexNext Collaborators:
FORT Structures
ICON

House One Collaborators:
Logan Architecture
FORT Structures
ICON

The Spiral

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES

The Spiral

NEW YORK, UNITED STATES

2023

CLIENT

Tishman Speyer

TYPOLOGY

Work

SIZE M2/FT2

260,129 / 2,800,000

STATUS

COMPLETED

Located on West 34th Street between Hudson Boulevard and 10th Avenue, The Spiral neighbors the elevated High Line and Bella Abzug Park on Manhattan’s west side. The tower extends the parks’ green space up and around its exterior in a spiraling motion towards the sky – from the High Line to the skyline.

Developed by Tishman Speyer and built by Turner, the commercial high-rise was designed by BIG in collaboration with Adamson Associates and structural engineer WSP Cantor Seinuk. The tower measures 66 stories and 2.8 million square feet, reaching a height of 1,031.5 feet. The Spiral is pursuing LEED Silver certification. The tower is BIG’s first completed supertall, and first completed commercial high-rise in New York.

From street level, the striking tower draws the eye upwards to the ribbon of greenery that extends the High Line beyond West 34th Street and into the Manhattan skyline. Reminiscent of a conservatory, the tower’s glass panel façade offers passersby a look into the building’s bright and spacious lobby, adorned with artwork by Dutch studio DRIFT and lush foliage, which can be accessed via entrances on both Hudson Boulevard and 10th Avenue.

As a gesture to the building’s surroundings, The Spiral’s lobby incorporates seven different metals to honor the area’s industrial history, with floor panels measured to the exact dimensions of the precast concrete planks spanning the High Line.

The Spiral slowly reduces in volume as it rises, following the zoning envelope of the site. Its stepping language resonates with the design aesthetics of classic Manhattan skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center, while its slender proportions and use of modern materials and detailing speak to the design features of contemporary high-rise architecture.

“The Spiral punctuates the northern end of the High Line, and the linear park appears to carry through into the tower, forming an ascending ribbon of lively green spaces, extending the High Line to the skyline. The Spiral combines the classic Ziggurat silhouette of the premodern skyscraper with the slender proportions and efficient layouts of the modern high-rise. Designed for the people who occupy it, The Spiral ensures that every floor of the tower opens up to the outdoors, creating hanging gardens and cascading atria that connect the open floor plates from the ground floor to the summit into a single uninterrupted workspace. The string of terraces wrapping around the building expands the daily life of the tenants to the outside air and light. As the trees and grasses, flowers and vines have taken root over the last two summers, The Spiral is slowly becoming an ascending ribbon of green wrapping around the entire silhouette of the tower - like a 1000-foot-tall vine at the scale of the city’s skyline.”

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

SITE & ENVELOPE — Located at the crossing of 34th Street and 10th Avenue, the building punctuates the High Line and the beginning of Hudson Boulevard. The zoning envelope allows for 2.6 million sf and requires two setbacks.

Building Height — We stretch the basic volume to the requested building height and follow the setback structure of the zoning envelope.

VIEWS — At 1031.5 ft tall, The Spiral clears most of the neighboring buildings, allowing uninterrupted views over New York City.

FROM HIGH LINE TO SKY LINE — The High Line will appear to carry through into the tower's spiral, forming an ascending ribbon of lively green spaces and extending the High Line into the skyline.

Cascading landscaped terraces and hanging gardens climb the tower in a spiraling motion to create a unique, continuous green ribbon that wraps around the façade of the building and supplies each office floor with readily accessible terrace space.

TYPICAL MULTI-STORY ORGANIZATION — In a typical commercial skyscraper, floors operate in isolation. Even when occupants work for the same organization, interactions are minimal.

CONNECTED ORGANIZATION — The Spiral has a string of double height spaces that can be connected. Occupants on different floors are able to interact with each other in a lively ribbon of atria and terraces.

With approximately 13,000 square feet of outdoor space, a landscape of The Spiral’s size has never been installed at or above 300 feet elevation in New York City. Most of the plant species on the ground cover are native to the American prairie, making them resistant to high winds and droughts.

As the building rises, a second layer of shrubs and taller bushes that blossom in winter are introduced, and finally, the landscape is crowned with single- and multi-stem trees that flower as early as February, along with vertical trellises with English and Boston ivy that keep their leaves through the winter. The plant palette differs on each side of the building depending on sun orientation and endurance against high-velocity winds.

“The Spiral pioneers a new landscape typology by bringing gardens to a high rise. Its continuous cascade of greenery from one level to another provides office spaces with a new vertical dimension of social and biophilic connectivity. Designed to strengthen collaboration and wellbeing, each terrace hosts plantings specific to the varying daylight, winds and temperatures at every floor of the tower. These gardens will welcome neighboring birds, bees and butterflies to expand New York's biodiversity to the city skyline.”

Giulia Frittoli — Partner, BIG

As The Spiral ascends, each floor’s accessible terrace offers impressive views over Manhattan, the Hudson River and New Jersey. Select floors offer a double height amenity space and the option to connect adjacent floors via a grand staircase, suggesting an alternative to elevators and encouraging interaction amongst colleagues.

TSP-0

TSP-3

TSP-8

On the 66th floor, The Spiral offers its very own ZO Clubhouse, reserved exclusively for people to gather, connect and recharge in the private lounge or open-air terrace.

The Spiral promotes a contemporary workplace where nature becomes an integrated part of the office environment and spatial features are continuously adaptable to the changing needs of its occupants. To foster a connection to the outdoors and support The Spiral’s interior foliage, a generous ceiling height and specially selected exterior glass coating enables a deeper incursion of natural light. The building’s water management system collects overflow rainwater to treat and redistribute throughout the tiered landscaping, allowing it to save approximately 4.5 million gallons of water annually. This not only allows for sustainable irrigation – it also further cements The Spiral as a green addition to the Manhattan skyline.

Bjarke Ingels Thomas Christoffersen Daniel Sundlin Beat Schenk Agla Egilsdottir Agne Rapkeviciute Alvaro Velosa Andreas Buettner Andrew Lee Dominyka Voelkle Florencia Kratsman Haochen Yu Jan Leenknegt Julie Kaufman Kate Cella Kelly Neill Mackenzie Keith Marcus Wilford Margaret Tyrpa Veronica Acosta Megan Van Artsdalen Morgan Mangelsen Otilia Pupezeanu Ryan Duval Seo Young Shin Terrence Chew Tracy Sodder Won Ryu Emily Chen Lawrence-Olivier Mahadoo Tony-Saba Shiber Stephen Kwok Chris Tron Deb Campbell Dylan Hames Francesca Portesine Gabriel Jewell-Vitale Janie Green Adam Sheraden Adrien Mans Anton Bashkaev Armen Menendian Benjamin Johnson Brian Rome Cadence Merrie Bayley Carolien Schippers Cheyenne Vandevoorde Christopher White Daniele Pronesti David Brown Davide Maggio Denys Kozak Douglass Alligood Erin Yook Gabriella Den Elzen Gaurav Sardana Ibrahim Salman Jan Casimir Janice Rim Jennifer Wood Joshua Burns Juan David Ramirez Kristoffer Negendahl Kurt Nieminen Lisbet Fritze Trentemøller Lucio Santos Manon Otto Maria Eugenia Dominguez Martynas Norvila Mateusz Rek Matteo Gawlak Maureen Rahman Michael Zhang Nicholas Potts Phawin Siripong Rachel Coulomb Ruo Wang Sarkis Sarkisyan Simon David Simon Lee Thea Gasseholm Tore Banke Ute Rinnebach Varat Limwibul Veronica Moretti Wells Barber Will Fu Yaziel Juarbe Yenhsi Tung Zoltan Kalászi Hung-Kai Liao Ali Chen Benjamin Caldwell Dong-Joo Kim Giulia Frittoli Jack Lipson Josiah Poland Luke Lu Peter Lee

AWARDS

Beacon Awards, 2024

Engineering News-Record, Best of the Best Award, 2024

NYCxDESIGN Awards, 2024

CTBUH Award of Excellence, 2023

CoStar Impact Award, 2023

ASLA NY Design Merit Award, 2017

COLLABORATORS

Adamson Associates
WSP Cantor Seinuk
Turner Construction
Cosentini
Langan
Edgett Williams Consulting Group
Thornton Tomasetti
Heintges
Vidaris
Entek Engineering
FMS
Pandiscio Green
Doyle Partners
Squint Opera
Siteworks
Northern Designs
Space Copenhagen
Michaelis Boyd
Studio Drift
Banker Steel
Roger & Sons Construction
Permasteelisa
CMI
Vitrocsa
W + W
Top Shelf Electric
Otis Elevator Company
National
Bamco
Garcia
Jacobson & Company
Cooper Plastering
Sponzilli
JBB
BIG Landscape
BIG Ideas

Gelephu Mindfulness City

GELEPHU, BHUTAN

Gelephu Mindfulness City

GELEPHU, BHUTAN

2023

CLIENT

The Kingdom of Bhutan

TYPOLOGY

Infrastructure, Public Realm, Civic, Urbanism, Sustainability

STATUS

IN DESIGN

In the 116th National Day address to the Bhutanese people on December 17th, 2023, His Majesty King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck unveiled his vision for a new economic hub in Bhutan, the world’s first carbon-negative country. Located in the town of Gelephu in Southern Bhutan, the 1000+ km2 masterplan titled ‘Mindfulness City’ by BIG, Arup, and Cistri is informed by Bhutanese culture, the principles of Gross National Happiness index (GNH), and the country’s strong spiritual heritage.

Located on the Indo-Bhutan border to the south of Bhutan, Mindfulness City will leverage its location and connectivity to South Asia and Southeast Asia to lay the foundation for the country’s future growth and create economic opportunities for its citizens through investments in green technology, education, and infrastructure. The masterplan includes a new international airport, railway connections, a hydroelectric dam, public spaces, and a language for local building typologies, based on the nine domains of GNH: Psychological Wellbeing, Health, Education, Living Standards, Time-Use, Ecological Diversity and Resilience, Good Governance, Cultural Diversity and Resilience, and Community Vitality.

Nestled between mountains, forests, and rivers, Bhutan stands as one of the last biodiversity hotspots in the world, with 70% of the country covered in forest. Mindfulness City aims to amplify the country’s abundant biodiversity by emerging as a vibrant tapestry of interconnected ecosystems and lively neighborhoods shaped by the flow of the 35 rivers and streams that run through the site. The resulting ribbonlike neighborhoods resemble paddy fields, forming urban terraces that cascade down from the hills to the valley. The city increases in density from the rural and recreational highlands to the urban and dense lowlands.

Gelephu's existing site conditions.

35 rivers run across the site, bringing water from the mountains in the north down to the south.

To protect existing and future development against flooding in the monsoon season, paddy fields are established along the site’s rivers.

A gradual change in density of the developments is created, from small buildings dispersed in the landscape in the north to larger footprints within an urban environment in the south.

Mobility connections for public and vehicular transport as well as pedestrians run across Mindfulness City and connect all neighborhoods.

A series of inhabitable bridges link urban and natural environments.

The natural elements and the existing infrastructure, agriculture, and utilities of Gelephu naturally create 11 distinct neighborhoods across the 1000 km2 area. Each of the 11 neighborhoods is designed based on the principles of the Mandala; defined by a series of repeating typologies organized symmetrically around a central public space, a gradual transition in density is created, from small buildings dispersed in the landscape in the north to larger footprints within an urban environment in the south.

To protect existing and future development against flooding in the monsoon season, paddy fields will be established along the site’s rivers and tributaries, running from north to south. By allowing the river to naturally expand its space, minimizing the reliance on engineered flood control solutions. The rivers will further function as biodiversity corridors for local flora and fauna, leaving the migratory routes of elephants and other wildlife undisturbed.

“The Gelephu Masterplan gives form to His Majesty’s vision to create a city that becomes a cradle for growth and innovation while remaining founded on Bhutanese nature and culture. We imagine the Mindfulness City as a place that could be nowhere else. Where nature is enhanced, agriculture is integrated, and tradition is living and breathing, not only preserved but also evolved. Shaped by waterways, Gelephu becomes a land of bridges, connecting nature and people, past and future, local and global. Like the traditional Dzongs, these inhabitable bridges turn into cultural landmarks, doubling as transportation infrastructure combined with civic facilities. Among these, the Sankosh Temple-Dam embeds the city’s fundamental values into a cascading landscape of steps and landings, that like a 21st century Tigers Nest will be a manmade monument to the divine possibility of a sustainable human presence on earth. Turning engineering into art and turning the forces of nature into power."

Bjarke Ingels — Founder and Creative Director, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group

Intimate streets, paved with permeable pavers, provide resilience by allowing stormwater seep into the ground rather than the sewage system. Local materials including wood, stone, and bamboo will be used in the new buildings, inspired by vernacular motifs such as rabsel, cornices, ornaments, and roofscapes. Building heights are limited to a maximum of 6 meters, reducing the need for structural concrete or steel.

The neighborhoods within the city, divided by rivers, are tied together by three main mobility connections, which occasionally double as transportation infrastructure combined with civic and cultural facilities, creating a series of ‘inhabitable bridges’ that are tailored to each of the nine Gross National Happiness domains.

Each of the bridges house key destinations within the city: the new airport; a Vajrayana spiritual centre, which allows glimpses into the daily practices of the monks and masters of mindfulness; a healthcare centre as a meeting between Eastern and Western medicine; a university that exposes its academic activities; a hydroponic and aquaponic greenhouse putting ancient farming practices and modern agro-science on display for the daily commuters; a cultural centre to immerse and educate visitors about Bhutanese culture and customs; and a market adorned with Bhutanese textiles.

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“Inspired by the Bhutanese culture of respect and compassion for others and nature, the Mindfulness City is designed to enhance ecological systems, through an urban development that connects flora and fauna, as well as people and ideas. It becomes a testament of humanity's inseparable bond with nature, and a global example of how to build a sustainable human presence on Earth.”

Giulia Frittoli — Partner in Charge, BIG Landscape, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group

The final bridge, a hydroelectric dam, will be constructed on the city’s western border with a step-well retaining wall that offers viewpoints, staircases for meditative walks, and a temple. Visitors and pilgrims can ascend and descend along countless individual routes to the visitor centre and temple nested on the face of the manmade cliff. The Sankosh Temple-Dam embodies in architectural form of all the foundational elements of Gelephu: the harmonious coexistence of culture and nature, conceived as a hybrid child of Bhutan’s rich past heritage and its prosperous future legacy.

Bjarke Ingels Marius Tromholt-Richter Filip Radu Frederik Lyng Graham Forrest Jordan Laura Wätte Miles Treacy Monika Dauksaite Nanna Gyldholm Møller Per Bo Madsen Giulia Frittoli Dace Gurecka Anastasiia Golub Xu Lian Job Schobre Will Chuanrui Yu Konstantinos Koutsoupakis Thomas Lejeune Sophie Høg Floris Dreesmann Atibadi Brugnano Xian Chen Giancarlo Albarello Herrera Ahmad Tahhan Krisha Arunkumar Camille Castillo Stine Daude Adrianna Szmidt Praveen Lalitha Kishorekumar Xinyu Zhao Matthew Goodwill Anna Sofie Kirstine Krøyer Julius Victor-Antoine Delorme Neele Maree Ohlrogge Sophie Andrews Tara Ghesmatiaghkand Lucia Ayala Hancong Ding Claudia Jaegerman Teresa Albedi Stefan Victor Delvoye

COLLABORATORS

MQDC
NACO
Cistri
Arup
CDR
ERM

LEGO Brand House

BILLUND, DENMARK

LEGO Brand House

BILLUND, DENMARK

2017

CLIENT

Kirkbi A/S | LEGO Foundation | LEGO Group

TYPOLOGY

Culture, Interiors

SIZE M2/FT2

11,960 / 128,737

STATUS

COMPLETED

The LEGO brand House in Billund, Denmark is as playful and inviting as the world’s famous LEGO toy itself. Applying the ratio of the famous LEGO brick throughout the architecture, LEGO Brand House embodies the culture and values at the heart of all LEGO experiences. Simultaneously, the colorful building cements Billund’s status as the home of the LEGO brick and the children’s capital of the world.

Due to its central location in the heart of Billund, sitting at the site of the city’s former town hall, LEGO House is conceived as an urban space as much as an experience center. Consisting of 21 overlapping architectural blocks, a 2,000 m2 public square allows visitors and citizens of Billund to spend time inside or simply shortcut through the building.

CHILDREN'S CAPITAL — Since LEGO House is at the center of the capital of children, we thought why not design it like a city center - or rather, a town square?

ENERGIZING THE GROUND LEVEL — Elements that have a public everyday-like urban character are consolidated around a central space: café, forum, store, ticketing, wardrobe, restrooms etc.

CHILDREN'S SQUARE — Individual building blocks frame a square, allowing for daylight and views between them while letting people enter from multiple directions and creating shortcuts through the building.

GALLERIES — Above the square, a cluster of galleries overlap to create a continuous sequence of exhibitions.

MASTERPIECE GALLERY — At the top of the pile of bricks the Masterpiece Gallery forms a bridge between all the corners of the exhibition, and serves as a sky-lit gallery for LEGO as an art form.

MELT — Two of the volumes appear like melted pixels, forming casual outdoor seating for people watching or public performances.

The LEGO square is energized by an urban character, welcoming locals and visitors to the café, restaurant, LEGO store, and conference facilities. The plaza appears like an urban cave without any visible columns and is illuminated through the cracks and gaps between the volumes above.

Above the square, a cluster of galleries overlap to create a continuous sequence of exhibitions. Each gallery is color-coded in LEGO’s primary colors so wayfinding through the exhibitions becomes a journey through the color spectrum.

"LEGO house is a literal manifestation of the infinite possibilities of the LEGO brick. Through systematic creativity, children of all ages are empowered with the tools to create their own worlds and to inhabit them through play. At its finest, that is what architecture - and LEGO play - is all about: enabling people to imagine new worlds that are more exciting and expressive than the status quo, and to provide them with the skills to make them reality. This is what children do every day with LEGO bricks - and this is what we have done at LEGO House with actual bricks, taking Billund a step closer towards becoming the Capital for Children."

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

The first and second floors include four play zones arranged by color and programmed with activities that represent a certain aspect of a child’s learning: red is creative, blue is cognitive, green is social, and yellow is emotional. Guests of all ages can have an immersive and interactive experience, express their imagination, and not least be challenged by meeting other builders from all over the world.

The top of the building is crowned by the Masterpiece Gallery, a collection of LEGO fans’ beloved creations that pay tribute to the LEGO community. The Masterpiece Gallery is made of the iconic 2×4 LEGO brick and showcases art beneath eight circular skylights that resemble the studs of the brick. Like the golden ratio, the proportions of the brick are nested in the geometries of everything man-made in the building, from the glazed ceramic tiles in the steps and walls to the overall 21 block scheme. Atop the Masterpiece Gallery, citizens and visitors can get a 360° panoramic view of the city. Some of the rooftops can be accessed via pixelated public staircases that double as informal auditoria for people watching or seating for performances.

The History Collection at the lower level is where visitors can experience an archival immersion into the LEGO company and brand’s story. The Vault – located underneath LEGO Square – is where children and AFoLs (Adult Fans of LEGO) can witness the first edition of almost every LEGO set ever manufactured, including the new 774-piece, 197-step kit replicating the stacked-block formation of the LEGO House.

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"All activities in the house are related to our LEGO philosophy that learning through play promotes innovation and creativity. Play runs through the LEGO Group’s DNA, and it is really brought to life in LEGO House. Everything from experience zones and outdoor areas to our restaurant concepts is based on play and creativity, so no matter what you do in LEGO House, it will have something to do with playing."

Jesper Vilstrup — CEO, Lego

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19_12033_N110_webproject

R_Hjortshoj - Legoworld-86 s

R_Hjortshoj - Legoworld-89 s

Bjarke Ingels Finn Nørkjær David Zahle Jakob Lange Brian Yang Andreas Klok Pedersen Jakob Sand Jesper Boye Andersen Annette Jensen Ask Hvas Birgitte Villadsen Chris Falla Christoffer Gotfredsen Jakob Andreassen Jakub Wlodarczyk Jesper Bo Jensen Kamilla Heskje Kasper Reimer Hansen Kekoa Charlot Lone Fenger Albrechtsen Lorenzo Boddi Mads Engaard Stidsen Manon Otto Michael James Kepke Ryohei Koike Sergiu Calacean Snorre Nash Stefan Plugaru Tobias Hjortdal Tommy Bjørnstrup Høgni Laksafoss Agne Tamasauskaite Ariel Joy Norback Wallner Daruisz Duong Vu Hong Esben Christoffersen Franck Fdida Ioana Fartadi Scurtu Katarzyna Krystyna Siedlecka Katerina Joannides Leszek Czaja Magnus Algreen Suhr Marta Christensen Mathias Bank Stigsen Ole Dau Mortensen Stefan Wolf Thomas Jakobsen Randbøll Thomas Richard Hart Julia Boromissza Katarzyna Stachura Søren Askehave Jakob Ohm Laursen ‍Louise Bøgeskov Hou

AWARDS

EU Mies van der Rohe Award, Shortlist, 2019

Civic Trust Awards, Winner, 2019

IDEAT Future Awards Shortlist, Best Architecture in Commercial Design, 2018

INSIDE World Festival of Interiors, Civic, Culture & Transport Category Finalist, 2018

Danish Design Award Winner, Feel Good Category, 2018

Architizer A+ Award, Jury and Popular Choice Winner for Architecture + Branding, 2018

COLLABORATORS

COWI
Dr. Lüchinger + Meyer Brauingenieure AG
Jesper Kongshaug
Gade & Mortensen Akustik
E-Types

Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet

LE BRASSUS, SWITZERLAND

Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet

LE BRASSUS, SWITZERLAND

2020

CLIENT

Audemars Piguet

TYPOLOGY

Culture, Interiors

SIZE M2/FT2

2,373 / 25,543

STATUS

COMPLETED

Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet is a spiral-shaped pavilion, reminiscent of the spring in a timepiece movement, entirely supported by curved glass walls. The contemporary spiral flanks the original workshop where the Audemars Piguet story began in 1875 and where an earlier version of the museum was housed from 1992 to 2019. The vernacular architecture of the historical building has been fully recovered based on a thorough study of archival materials.

With a design that marries tradition and innovation, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet offers visitors a unique opportunity to delve into the history of watchmaking in the Vallée de Joux and explore how the brand’s timepieces are crafted in Le Brassus.

LINEAR PROGRAM — Returning to the space's program BIG took the linear sequence of exhibition spaces, and organized it as a single trajectory. To fit the long string of spaces onto the compact site, BIG coiled it up into a double spiral. That motion becomes the flow of the exhibition.

Exhibition Sequence — The existing museum building with its original workshops is connected to the exhibition sequence through an entrance hall positioned at the front.

Exhibition Route — The exhibition route connects the new spiral with the existing museum building.

Connecting Landscape — A landscape carpet is elegantly draped over the sloped site.

View and Light — The spiral is lifted and suppressed to allow for daylight to illuminate the workstations and for watchmakers to enjoy views to the valley.

Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet is informed by the convergence of form and content in clockwork. It is conceived like the coils of a watch, ticking and advancing in perpetuity like the gallery visitors and watchmakers moving cyclically with the structure. Every element is governed by the functional requirements of the exhibition while appearing as a sculpture conceived in a single gesture. The all-glass structure is made up of two spirals that seamlessly integrate into the existing landscape. The museum’s collection, which showcases some 300 timepieces, is displayed alongside two in-situ production workshops, creating a living museum.

Visitors can observe watchmakers working within the curved glass walls of the museum and experience their expertise first-hand.

"Unlike most machines and most buildings today that have a disconnect between the body and the mind, the hardware and the software, for the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet we have attempted to completely integrate the geometry and the performance, the form and the function, the space and the structure, the interior and the exterior in a symbiotic whole. It's an architecture in which the form is inseparable from its content, exposed like the gears and springs in a skeletonized open work."

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

As viewers circle the building, the rich collection of watches illuminates the history of Audemars Piguet and of watchmaking in the valley. The visit culminates at the center of the spiral with the display of some of the Manufacture’s most complicated watches. The spiral also includes two workshops, where Haute Joaillerie creations and Grandes Complications are crafted.

With the materials, more is less – an approach that takes inspiration from the art of watchmaking: miniaturization, making the elements as small as possible; “skeletonization,” excavating or subtracting all the unused material so the object becomes like a wireframe; and complication, loading as many functions as possible in the smallest amount of space.

The building fulfils the latest Swiss Minergie® requirements in terms of energy efficiency and high quality construction.

Bjarke Ingels Thomas Christoffersen Daniel Sundlin Beat Schenk Jakob Sand Blake Smith Jason Wu Kristian Hindsberg Otilia Pupezeanu Simon Scheller Ji-Young Yoon Adrien Mans Alessandra Peracin Ashton Stare Claire Thomas Spiller Dammy Lee Eva Maria Mikkelsen Evan Wiskup Jan Casimir Julien Beauchamp-Roy Marcin Fejcak Marie Lancon Matthew Oravec Maureen Rahman Maxime Le Droupeet Natalie Kwee Ming Yie Pascal Loschetter Teodor Javanaud Emden Sara Ibrahim Abed Tore Banke Ute Rinnebach Veronica Lalli Vivien Cheng Yaziel Juarbe Høgni Laksafoss Iva Ulam Rune Hansen

AWARDS

MIPIM Best Cultural and Sports Infrastructure, 2022

Ernst & Sohn Ingenieurbaupreis, 2022

Kyoto Design Award, Environment Design of the Year, 2021

AIA NY, Honor Award in Architecture, 2021

Prix Bilan de l’immobilier Public Buildings, 2020

German Design Award, 2020

Interior Design Best of Year Winner Museum/Art Gallery, 2020

Architizer A+ Awards Museum Popular Winner, 2020

COLLABORATORS

CCHE
Atelier Brueckner
Luchinger und Meyer
HG Merz
Muller Illien
BIG Ideas

The Heights School

ARLINGTON, UNITED STATES

The Heights School

ARLINGTON, UNITED STATES

2019

CLIENT

Arlington Public Schools

TYPOLOGY

Education, Interiors

SIZE M2/FT2

16,722 / 180,000

STATUS

COMPLETED

The Heights School opens as a cascade of green terraces fanning from a central axis, addressing the academic needs of Arlington’s two county-wide school programs while forming a vertical community within its dense urban context. By merging two existing secondary schools – the H-B Woodlawn Program and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Program into a new 180,000 sq ft building, the school expects enrollment of up to 775 students.

BIG worked closely with Arlington Public Schools (APS), WRAP (West Rosslyn Area Plan), and the Arlington community, to ensure that the design supports both H-B Woodlawn’s focus on trust and self-governance and Shriver’s extensive resources for students with specialized educational needs. The Heights has been designated LEED Gold certification.

The Heights building is situated within a compact urban site bounded by roads on three sides and a portion of Rosslyn Highlands Park. Conceived as a stack of five rectangular floorplates that rotate around a fixed pivot point, BIG maintains the community feeling and spatial efficiencies of a one-story school.

The Heights Building Site — The compact urban site is bounded by roads on three sides. Along 18th Street, the site shares a common edge with Rosslyn Highlands Park.

Site Objective — A vertical stack of classroom bars stretches across the center of the site, creating a protective barrier between the aesthetic field and the busy urban corridor of Wilson Boulevard.

Cascading Terraces — To create green space by the classrooms, the bars rotate around a single hinge point which creates 4 terraces from the education spaces to the recreation field. The first terrace is public when school is closed.

Public Spaces Towards Wilson — A generous lobby invites the public inside for community-oriented programs hosted throughout the building. The gymnasium and auditorium are centrally located to the lobby.

In-Between Spaces — Larger communal spaces, incl. cafeteria, library, and music rooms are easily accessible from the central space. The library is above the gym and the music rooms are above the theater.

Manipulated Ground Plane — The ground plane manipulations create circulation and daylight benefits for the school. Two sunken courtyards provide naturally lit outdoor spaces while the entrances serve as small public parks.

Rotating Stair Connection — A rotating staircase cuts through the interior to connect the four-tiered terraces, allowing students to circulate outside, forging a stronger bond between the neighborhood and the school.

Urban Terraced Landscape — The terraces provide different scales of activity, from large gatherings to class-size discussions, giving the opportunity for an urban school to have a 1-story feel.

Manipulated Ground Plane — The ground plane manipulations create circulation and daylight benefits for the school. Two sunken courtyards provide naturally lit outdoor spaces while the entrances serve as small public parks.

Green terraces above each floor become an extension of the classroom, creating an indoor-outdoor learning landscape for both students and teachers – an educational oasis rather than a traditional school setting. A rotating central staircase cuts through the interior of the building to connect the four-tiered terraces, allowing students to circulate outside and forge a stronger bond between the neighborhood and the school. While the upper terraces are more suitable for intimate classes and quiet study areas, the spacious first terrace and 18,700 sq ft recreation field also serve as public event venues for school-wide and neighborhood activities.

From Wilson Boulevard, students, teachers and staff are greeted by a triple-height lobby with stepped seating that doubles as an indoor gathering space for both student assemblies and public meetings. Many of the school’s common spaces, including the 400-seat auditorium, main gymnasium, library, reception, and cafeteria are centrally located and directly adjacent to the lobby.

Easy accessibility to the community-oriented programs hosted in the school encourages public interaction throughout the building, creating a welcoming environment while heightening the visual connectivity between the shared spaces. Other specialized student spaces include an art studio, science and robotic labs, music rehearsal rooms, and two performing arts theaters.

Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art

Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art

COLLABORATORS ARTS Group Co. Ltd. [中衡设计集团股份有限公司] Front Inc. Shanghai Shuishi Landscape Design Co. Ltd. [上海水石景观环境设计有限公司] Rdesign International Lighting [上海瑞逸环境设计有限公司] BIG Landscape BIG Engineering

University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design

University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design

COLLABORATORS BNIM StructureCraft Walter P Moore Cumming Group JE Dunn Construction Smith & Boucher Forza Consultants SK Design Group Rosin Preservation Kilograph

NOT A HOTEL Setouchi

NOT A HOTEL Setouchi

COLLABORATORS Maeda Corporation ARUP Japan 1moku NOSIGHT BOCS Mir LIT design

Manresa Island

Manresa Island

COLLABORATORS SCAPE Atelier Ten TYLin Kohler Ronan CCI Tighe & Bond E-Design Dynamics AKRF Directional Logic HR&A Advisors

Joint Research Center

Joint Research Center

COLLABORATORS Buro Happold HCP Architecture & Engineering Grupo Argenia

CopenHill

CopenHill

AWARDS Energy Globe National Award, 2022

Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub

Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub

COLLABORATORS A+Architecture A+R Paysages ALTO CLDesign Cronos Conseil dUCKS scéno Systematica Franck Boutté LASA les éclaireurs l'Echo schlaich bergermann partner - sbp Span MBacity FER-PLAY OGI

BIG HQ

BIG HQ

AWARDS Copenhagen Municipality Architecture Prize, 2024

Johns Hopkins Student Center

Johns Hopkins Student Center

COLLABORATORS Clark Construction Lindner StructureCraft Shepley Bulfinch Rockwell Group MVVA WSP-NYC WRA Knippers Helbig Charcoal Blue L’Observatoire Point of Reference Studio/POR Thornton Tomasetti Acentech Ricca Code Red Lerch Bates WJE Campbell-McCabe Kalin Associates Squint/Opera

The Twist

The Twist

AWARDS LCD Berlin Leading Culture Destinations of the Year Award, 2020

COLLABORATORS AKT II ÅF-Belysning AS Byggeanalyse Baumetall/Zambelli Group Bladt Industries Brekke & Strand David Langdon DIFK ECT Element Arkitekter Erichsen & Horgen Fokus Rådgivning GCAM Grindaker Lüchinger&Meyer Max Fordham MIR Rambøll BIG Ideas

UAE International Horticultural Expo Pavilion

UAE International Horticultural Expo Pavilion

AWARDS International Horticultural Expo 2023: Gold for Self-Built Pavilion

COLLABORATORS Conmarble Design Studio Atelier Brückner Mace CEG

Athletics Las Vegas Ballpark

Athletics Las Vegas Ballpark

COLLABORATORS HNTB Thornton Tomasetti Henderson Engineers CAA ICON Mortenson McCarthy Atelier Ten RWDI Kimley-Horn Systematica WJHW Jensen Hughs HKA WSP FP&C Chicago Flyhouse Duray Duncan Ed Roether Consulting Morean Negativ Mir

Museum for Paper Art

Museum for Paper Art

Claremont McKenna College

Claremont McKenna College

COLLABORATORS Saiful Bouquet Acco Engineered Systems Atlas Civil Design MRY Rosendin Electric WSP USA Jacobs ARUP KGM Architectural Lighting Heintges KOA EWCG KPRS Herrick Misty Gonzalez IDS Kleinfelder Salamander Code Consultants Inc

National Juneteenth Museum

National Juneteenth Museum

COLLABORATORS KAI Enterprises EDSA StructureCraft GreeNexus Consulting WSP KAI Engineering Simon Engineering Local Projects Vermeulens

The Plus

The Plus

AWARDS BREEAM Awards, Best New Building, 2024

Lonestar Data Center

Lonestar Data Center

Google Gradient Canopy

Google Gradient Canopy

COLLABORATORS Heatherwick Studio Adamson Arup CCI EWCG FMS Mott MacDonald Hathaway Dinwiddie HJLA HLW Hortscience H.T. Harvey Associates Iris environmental Kleinfelder Loisos + Ubbelohde Sera Sherwood Vital AKT II Front Atelier Ten Devcon T.S. Krumholz

Freedom Plaza

Freedom Plaza

COLLABORATORS Langan Rizzo Brookbridge Herrick Feinstein Adamson Friedmutter Group OJB Landscape Architecture Thornton Tomasetti WSP HBA

CODEX

CODEX

COLLABORATORS Storm Collaborators: STG Design WGI Engineering FORT Structures ICON Fire Collaborators: ICON TexNext Collaborators: FORT Structures ICON House One Collaborators: Logan Architecture FORT Structures ICON

The Spiral

The Spiral

AWARDS Beacon Awards, 2024

Gelephu Mindfulness City

Gelephu Mindfulness City

COLLABORATORS MQDC NACO Cistri Arup CDR ERM

LEGO Brand House

LEGO Brand House

AWARDS EU Mies van der Rohe Award, Shortlist, 2019

COLLABORATORS COWI Dr. Lüchinger + Meyer Brauingenieure AG Jesper Kongshaug Gade & Mortensen Akustik E-Types

Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet

Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet

AWARDS MIPIM Best Cultural and Sports Infrastructure, 2022

COLLABORATORS CCHE Atelier Brueckner Luchinger und Meyer HG Merz Muller Illien BIG Ideas

The Heights School

The Heights School

COLLABORATORS

ARTS Group Co. Ltd. [中衡设计集团股份有限公司]
Front Inc.
Shanghai Shuishi Landscape Design Co. Ltd. [上海水石景观环境设计有限公司]
Rdesign International Lighting [上海瑞逸环境设计有限公司]
BIG Landscape
BIG Engineering

COLLABORATORS

BNIM
StructureCraft
Walter P Moore
Cumming Group
JE Dunn Construction
Smith & Boucher
Forza Consultants
SK Design Group
Rosin Preservation
Kilograph

COLLABORATORS

Maeda Corporation
ARUP Japan
1moku
NOSIGHT
BOCS
Mir
LIT design

COLLABORATORS

SCAPE
Atelier Ten
TYLin
Kohler Ronan
CCI
Tighe & Bond
E-Design Dynamics
AKRF
Directional Logic
HR&A Advisors

COLLABORATORS

Buro Happold
HCP Architecture & Engineering
Grupo Argenia

AWARDS

Energy Globe National Award, 2022

COLLABORATORS

A+Architecture
A+R Paysages
ALTO
CLDesign
Cronos Conseil
dUCKS scéno
Systematica
Franck Boutté
LASA
les éclaireurs
l'Echo
schlaich bergermann partner - sbp
Span
MBacity
FER-PLAY
OGI

AWARDS

Copenhagen Municipality Architecture Prize, 2024

COLLABORATORS

Clark Construction
Lindner
StructureCraft
Shepley Bulfinch
Rockwell Group
MVVA
WSP-NYC
WRA
Knippers Helbig
Charcoal Blue
L’Observatoire
Point of Reference Studio/POR
Thornton Tomasetti
Acentech
Ricca
Code Red
Lerch Bates
WJE
Campbell-McCabe
Kalin Associates
Squint/Opera

AWARDS

LCD Berlin Leading Culture Destinations of the Year Award, 2020

COLLABORATORS

AKT II
ÅF-Belysning
AS Byggeanalyse
Baumetall/Zambelli Group
Bladt Industries
Brekke & Strand
David Langdon
DIFK
ECT
Element Arkitekter
Erichsen & Horgen
Fokus Rådgivning
GCAM
Grindaker
Lüchinger&Meyer
Max Fordham
MIR
Rambøll
BIG Ideas

AWARDS

International Horticultural Expo 2023: Gold for Self-Built Pavilion

COLLABORATORS

Conmarble Design Studio
Atelier Brückner
Mace
CEG

COLLABORATORS

HNTB
Thornton Tomasetti
Henderson Engineers
CAA ICON
Mortenson
McCarthy
Atelier Ten
RWDI
Kimley-Horn
Systematica
WJHW
Jensen Hughs
HKA
WSP
FP&C
Chicago Flyhouse
Duray Duncan
Ed Roether Consulting
Morean
Negativ
Mir

COLLABORATORS

Saiful Bouquet
Acco Engineered Systems
Atlas Civil Design
MRY
Rosendin Electric
WSP USA
Jacobs
ARUP
KGM Architectural Lighting
Heintges
KOA
EWCG
KPRS
Herrick
Misty Gonzalez
IDS
Kleinfelder
Salamander
Code Consultants Inc

COLLABORATORS

KAI Enterprises
EDSA
StructureCraft
GreeNexus Consulting
WSP
KAI Engineering
Simon Engineering
Local Projects
Vermeulens

AWARDS

BREEAM Awards, Best New Building, 2024

COLLABORATORS

Heatherwick Studio
Adamson
Arup
CCI
EWCG
FMS
Mott MacDonald
Hathaway Dinwiddie
HJLA
HLW
Hortscience
H.T. Harvey Associates
Iris environmental
Kleinfelder
Loisos + Ubbelohde
Sera
Sherwood
Vital
AKT II
Front
Atelier Ten
Devcon
T.S. Krumholz

COLLABORATORS

Langan
Rizzo Brookbridge
Herrick Feinstein
Adamson
Friedmutter Group
OJB Landscape Architecture
Thornton Tomasetti
WSP
HBA

COLLABORATORS

Storm Collaborators:
STG Design
WGI Engineering
FORT Structures
ICON

Fire Collaborators:
ICON

TexNext Collaborators:
FORT Structures
ICON

House One Collaborators:
Logan Architecture
FORT Structures
ICON

AWARDS

Beacon Awards, 2024

COLLABORATORS

MQDC
NACO
Cistri
Arup
CDR
ERM

AWARDS

EU Mies van der Rohe Award, Shortlist, 2019

COLLABORATORS

COWI
Dr. Lüchinger + Meyer Brauingenieure AG
Jesper Kongshaug
Gade & Mortensen Akustik
E-Types

AWARDS

MIPIM Best Cultural and Sports Infrastructure, 2022

COLLABORATORS

CCHE
Atelier Brueckner
Luchinger und Meyer
HG Merz
Muller Illien
BIG Ideas