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.

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. 

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. 

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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 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.  

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.

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.  

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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%. 

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

The classroom bars serve as the primary organizing elements, surrounding a central vertical core that contains the elevators, stairs and bathrooms. As students enter from the central staircase, they are greeted by an expanded gradient of the color spectrum: each classroom bar is defined by its own color, combining intuitive wayfinding with a vibrant social atmosphere from the ground to the sky.

The Shriver Program providing special education for students aged 11 to 22 occupies two floors of the building accessible from the ground floor, and has specialized spaces dedicated to support APS’ Functional Life Skills program as well as privacy and ease of accessibility; the gymnasium, courtyard, occupational physical therapy suite, and sensory cottage are designed to aid in sensory processing.

The Heights’ exterior is materialized in a graceful white glazed brick to unify the five volumes and highlight the oblique angles of the fanning classroom bars, allowing the sculptural form, and the energy and activity of the inside to take center stage. Keeping the surrounding neighborhood and former Wilson School in mind, the building’s material palette pays homage to the historical architecture of Old Town Alexandria.

The planned state-of-the-art National Museum of the United States Navy is envisioned as a home for both Naval veterans and the public, a living memorial to the U.S. Navy’s heritage and a lighthouse in the community for education and public events.

The 270,000 sq ft campus includes a new building and ceremonial courtyard, as well as the potential renovation of existing historical buildings. BIG’s competition proposal, developed in collaboration with landscape architects Olin Studio and digital media agency Squint/Opera, seeks to reflect the historical context of the Navy Yard, while referencing the scale, materials and details of Navy vessels. An array of large-scale vitrines open up towards a public street, welcoming visitors and locals with an impressive glimpse into the museum’s collection of artifacts inside and outside, conveying the mission, lineage and breadth of operations that constitutes the US Navy.

BIG’s vision is developed with flexibility and utility in mind to allow for different events simultaneously in and around the building. Rather than closing or compromising the museum due to events, the visitor experience is enhanced by the varying spectacles playing out during the day allowing visitors glimpses of events while enjoying full access to the galleries.

The final concept will be chosen from a total of five concepts from the Naval Heritage History and Command’s Artistic Ideas Competition for the National Museum of the U.S. Navy (NMUSN).

The planned new museum is set to become a destination amongst the vast offerings of exhibition experiences in D.C, while also being a welcoming place of remembrance and contemplation for enlisted sailors, Navy Veterans and their families.

In May of 2022, the City of Prague unveiled BIG’s design for the country’s first national concert hall in over 100 years: The Vltava Philharmonic Hall. The new concert hall will become the home of the world-class philharmonic for 1800+ audiences, celebrate the Czech music tradition and cement the country as a cultural capital in Europe.

The Vltava Philharmonic Hall is composed as a cascade of outdoor destinations from the waterfront on the river to the city’s iconic skyline. By raising and lowering the corners of the building at multiple touch points, the public spaces connect and allow activities to spill in and out of the building on every side: towards the river, the square, the street, and the alley. Visitors will be drawn in from all forms of arrival, with carefully chosen programs inviting them to explore the music venues inside or climb the elegant, arced roofs of the new concert hall.