NEWS

The ribbon cutting ceremony for the new NYPD 40th Precinct was held in the Melrose neighborhood of the South Bronx, New York, with speeches by NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, DDC Commissioner Thomas Foley, BIG’s Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels, and more.

The ground-up project, designed by BIG, features the first-ever community event space to be at an NYPD facility, as well as multiple green roofs and dedicated areas for fitness and training for officers. From the outside, the new precinct resembles a stack of bricks, referencing the rusticated bases of early NYC police stations. The form of the building is derived from its programmatic requirements, where individual volumes contain specific elements of the program as outlined by the NYPD and local residents.

“I hope this structure will help make the 40th Precinct a safer and more welcoming place—both for the community and for the men and women who work to keep it safe.” – Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG

In a CBS 60 Minutes segment exploring Bhutan, BIG’s Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels spoke with correspondent Lesley Stahl about Gelephu Mindfulness City, BIG’s masterplan for a new city in Southern Bhutan informed by Bhutanese culture, the principles of Gross National Happiness Index, and the country’s strong spiritual heritage.

60 Minutes is the U.S.’s oldest and most-watched newsmagazine on television, covering current events, politics, lifestyle, pop culture, business, health, and science.

“If we succeed, we can show that you can create a city that does not displace nature, that is anchored and rooted in the local heritage and culture, and still allows for prosperity and growth to happen.” – Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG

BIG’s Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels was featured as a guest speaker at Fortune Magazine’s Global Forum in New York, alongside leaders from the world’s most innovative companies, including retired football player Tom Brady, American businessman Joshua Kushner, and NYSE President Lynn Martin. Clay Chandler, executive editor, Asia at Fortune, interviewed Bjarke about Project Olympus and Gelephu Mindfulness City, during which Bjarke also touched on the ideas of ‘Practical Utopianism’ and ‘Hedonistic Sustainability.’

The Fortune Global Forum brings together the brightest minds to explore the trends and strategies reshaping industries and transforming the future, addressing disruptive forces like AI, climate change, and geopolitical risks.

CapitaSpring has won the 11th edition of the International High-Rise Award – a biennial honor recognizing high-rise buildings that consider future-oriented design, functionality, innovative building technology, integration into urban development schemes, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness. The prize is jointly given by Detsches Architekturmuseum (DAM), Deka Bank, and the City of Frankfurt. The BIG-designed residential tower IQON in Quito has also been recognized as a finalist in the awards program, highlighted for its architectural design and integration of greenery.

The prize was presented at a ceremony in Frankfurt, handed over by Lord Mayor of the City of Frankfurt Mike Josef, Deputy Chair of the Board of DekaBank Dr. Matthias Danne, and Director of Deutsches Architekturmuseum Peter Cachola Schmal. Praised as “the best high-rise building in the world at the moment“, the jury stated, “We are honoring the city for giving the developer the right incentives, and the developer for seizing the initiative, and the architects for finding an innovative solution to it all. All of this is reflected in the quality of the architecture. CapitaSpring could simply not have been built elsewhere at present. Other cities can definitely learn from this.”

Accepting the award on behalf of BIG and co-architects Carlo Ratti Associati was Partner-in-Charge Brian Yang, alongside Project Director Gregory Chua, representing developers CapitaLand.

“In 2016, our first high-rise – the New York courtscraper VIA 57 West won the International High-Rise Award—a great honor. The courtscraper was about providing the American skyscraper with the urban oasis and social space of a European courtyard. Today with CapitaSpring, we have set out to explore the high-rise as a vertical extension of a uniquely Singaporean form of tropical urbanism. By wresting the vertical lines of the façade apart, the tower opens up for access and views between inside and outside, turning the traditional pinstripe of the classic curtainwall into something more engaging, inviting, and accessible. A simple gesture that fundamentally reimagines the social role of a skyscraper. Needless to say, we are deeply grateful that CapitaSpring has moved the jury as much as it has ourselves.” – Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG

In anticipation of Ken Burns’s forthcoming documentary on Leonardo da Vinci’s life and work, BIG Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels sat down with the American filmmaker to reflect on da Vinci’s blend of science and art. During the discussion, Bjarke shares how – like da Vinci – he is inspired by the natural world in his work, the idea of pragmatic utopianism, and the architectural advancements that may impress the Italian polymath if he were alive today.

The Nawabari collection, designed by BIG’s Product design team in collaboration with Danish furniture company BoConcept, won the Readers’ Award – a category determined by public voting – at the 11th annual 2024 Design Awards in Copenhagen. Hosted by design magazines Bo Bedre and Boligmagasinet, the Design Awards program is dedicated to celebrating Danish design and designers.

The Nawabari furniture family consists of two sofa sizes, an armchair, two coffee tables, and two pouffe sizes in an array of colors. The collection is inspired by the Japanese art form of binding with ropes to forge close bonds, with ‘nawa’ meaning ‘rope’ in Japanese, and the term ‘nawabari’ traditionally translating to ‘stretching rope’.

Denmark unveiled its first AI supercomputer, ‘Gefion.’ Developed by Novo Nordisk, Denmark’s Export and Investment Fund (EIFO), and American AI computing company NVIDIA, Gefion is one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, set to revolutionize research in quantum computing, drug discovery, and the green energy transition. BIG’s product designers were tapped to design and build the scale model of ‘Gefion,’ which was displayed at the official launch event attended by HM King Frederik X of Denmark, NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang, and Nadia Carlsten, CEO of the Danish Centre for AI Innovation.

The I AM MSRHM pavilion was showcased at Scandinavia’s biggest conference for additive manufacturing, AM Summit. Born out of a desire to innovate the construction industry, I AM MSHRM is a collaborative effort between Danish AM Hub, MDT, Naturpladen, and BIG’s architects and engineers, aimed at exploring new ways to reduce spatial and material waste through additive manufacturing and bio-based materials.

The result is a rapidly deployable and easily assembled system consisting of interlocking frame elements of 3D-printed recycled plastic filled with mycelium. The reciprocal frame structures are bespoke in geometry yet modular in their assembly logic, making it possible to be easily put together without scaffolding or specialized knowledge. This method of printing reduces the overall print material, replacing it with a mycelium composite to significantly lower the overall carbon footprint.

BIG Associate Alana Goldweit sat down with Forbes to discuss the city of Telosa, a vision for a new city envisioned collaboratively by entrepreneur and businessman Marc Lore and BIG. In the feature story, Alana talks about Telosa’s “people-first” approach, the challenges of imagining a new city for the American desert, and the opportunities architects and urban designers have to rethink how we can live more healthily and equitable in the urban environment.

The 150,000-acre proposal for Telosa includes eco-friendly architecture, sustainable energy production, and a drought-resistant water system. The vision aims to set a global standard for urban living, expand human potential, and become a blueprint for future generations and urban environments. Telosa has a target population of five million by 2050, with the first phase of construction expected to house 50,000 people by 2030.

Global media outlet The Economist published an article on the potentials of the Gelephu Mindfulness City masterplan, designed by BIG in collaboration with Arup and Cistri. Gelephu Mindfulness City positively stands out in three ways, according to the reporter: the country’s geopolitics and support from India; its possible draw for the artificial intelligence and crypto industries; and the hope that the plan will encourage the over 6% of Bhutan residents who have emigrated to return, while teaching other Bhutanese to compete at home with foreign talent.

Mindfulness City aims to drive Bhutan’s future growth by creating economic opportunities for its citizens through investments in green technology, education, and infrastructure. The plan includes a new international airport, railway connections, a hydroelectric dam, public spaces, and a language for local building typologies rooted in the country’s vernacular architecture.

Faena New York will open its doors next spring in the east tower at One High Line in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The property will offer 120 guest rooms and suites, the Tierra Santa Healing House spa, and vibrant restaurant and nightlife venues. The opening of Faena New York will mark two decades since Faena’s debut in Buenos Aires and a decade since the launch of Faena Miami Beach.

The sculptural geometry of One High Line’s two towers is a direct response to their dense context on Manhattan’s west side. At the base, the two towers pull away from each other and the neighboring buildings to maximize urban space and views of the surrounding skyline and the elevated High Line park. The twisting geometry at the corners of the towers reduces the overall bulk of the buildings and creates additional separation between them.

BIG, in collaboration with creo arkitekter, is shortlisted as one of the four architectural teams to design a new hospice building in Hellerup, north of Copenhagen. Commissioned by the nonprofit healthcare organization Sankt Lukas Stiftelsen, the foundation’s new palliative care centre will provide enhanced support for terminally ill patients of all ages and their families, housing hospice programmes for children, young people, and adults; an expanded outgoing hospice team that treats patients in their own homes; and Denmark’s first day hospice. Competing alongside BIG are C.F. Møller with Effekt; Dorte Mandrup with Nord Architects and Marianne Levinsen Landskab; and Lundgaard & Tranberg Arkitekter with Vega Landskab.

The first section of the East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project between East 15^th and East 25^th Streets has completed on Manhattan’s east side. ESCR, designed by BIG, MNLA, and AKRF, will protect and improve the resiliency of more than 110,000 New Yorkers, critical infrastructure, and numerous schools and libraries by employing raised parkland, floodwalls and gates, and berms while reestablishing public space and improving waterfront accessibility.

“As one of the world’s great coastal cities, we know that stronger storms and rising seas are a threat, because no one knows when the next Superstorm Sandy will arrive at our doorstep; but New York City plans to be ready,” remarked Mayor Adams at the celebratory ribbon cutting ceremony. “Today, we are marking the completion of Phase One of East Side Coastal Resiliency – two months ahead of schedule and $10 million under budget. Once the entire project is completed, the protective gates can be deployed when a hurricane or storm surge is headed our way – protecting lives and New Yorkers’ wallets as we safeguard property. Protecting New Yorkers from climate change is a massive undertaking, with millions of lives and billions of dollars on the line – and we’re more than up to the task.”

Construction on the second section of ESCR is underway and anticipated to be completed by the end of 2026.

In an article for the digital culture newsletter Air Mail, BIG’s Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels shares his guide to the best spots in his home city of Copenhagen, Denmark. The list of recommendations features his favorite wine bar, restaurants, cultural spots, and bookstore.

To celebrate the five-year journey since the opening of BIG’s Barcelona office, BIG hosted an exhibition at Centre Obert d’Arquitectura (COAC) in Barcelona. The exhibition, titled ‘5 YEARS OF BIG BCN,’ opened with an inaugural speech by Partner João Albuquerque and showcased a sample of the office’s projects including the Biosphere cabin at Treehotel in the Swedish Lapland, the Joint Research Center in Sevilla, and the Ellinikon Park Rise in Athens.

This week marks the inaugural Bhutan Innovation Forum, the first large-scale international event focused on shaping the future of Bhutan, anchored by the potential of Gelephu Mindfulness City. At the event, BIG presented the finalized concept for the 2500 km2 masterplan, rooted in the principles of the Gross National Happiness Index and the country’s strong cultural heritage. This new economic hub aims to drive the growth of Bhutan through green technology, education, and infrastructure.

“For the last year we have focused on turning the Gelephu Mindfulness City Masterplan into a tangible series of buildable projects that will bring this vision to life. From the International Airport designed as a Forest Terminal, to buildings made from locally sourced river stone, timber, and bamboo, to streets and parks that seamlessly manage water like natural ecosystems, the Mindfulness City is a testament to how economic growth can be nurtured by nature and rooted in local culture and heritage.

Designed to attract foreign investment and retain local talent, Gelephu Mindfulness City aspires to demonstrate how innovation can flourish while enhancing and expanding local identity – a conundrum most modern cities struggle with how to tackle.” – Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG

“The Bhutan Innovation Forum is a first step towards realizing the Gelephu Mindfulness City Vision. By sharing experiences and insights between global and local leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators, Bhutan is demonstrating its commitment to securing a stronger future for its younger generations. I’m delighted to announce the progress on the city’s design development, and I look forward to continuing our collaboration with both local and international communities to create a lasting and meaningful impact, shaping a future where tradition and innovation thrive side by side.” – Giulia Frittoli, Partner and Head of BIG Landscape, BIG

Solar One – the nonprofit focused on sustainability and resiliency in urban environments – along with BIG, Gilbane Building Company, and the NYC Economic Development Corporation celebrated the topping out of the Solar One Environmental Education Center in Stuyvesant Cove Park on Manhattan’s east side.

The BIG-designed home for environmental learning and innovation, designed in collaboration with Silman Structural Engineers and Cosentini Associates, will offer educational programming on New York’s ecology in a structure designed to withstand flooding events and provide life-saving recharging capabilities during power outages. Opening spring 2025, the center will also act as a gateway to the northernmost point of the East Side Coastal Resiliency waterfront redevelopment, designed by BIG with AKRF, ONE, and MNLA. The East Side Coastal Resiliency project will bring 2.5 miles of coastal resiliency and social infrastructure along the East River, reducing the risk of flooding during storm surge events while improving access to the waterfront, creating new public spaces, and enhancing natural areas.

Designed by BIG and landscape architecture firm SCAPE, Manresa Island is situated on the site of a decommissioned power plant in southeast Connecticut that extends into the Long Island Sound. The industrial peninsula, surrounded by water on three sides, will be transformed into a 125-acre publicly accessible park designed by SCAPE, unlocking 1.75 miles of waterfront access for the first time in nearly 75 years. The plant buildings at the heart of the site will be adapted by BIG into a dynamic community hub for learning, discovery, and exploration.

Once home to the Manresa Institute, a retreat and recreation destination, the site was converted into a coal-fired power plant in the 1950s. BIG has been 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. 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 event space and speakeasy, while the adjacent office building 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 post-industrial 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, Creative Director & Founder, BIG

This year’s Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) Conference honored the Kaktus Towers in Copenhagen, named “Best High Rise in Europe” by the jury of international architects. Gathering industry leaders in the world of construction, the CTBUH Conference recognizes projects, practices, and individuals that have made extraordinary contributions to the advancement of tall buildings and the urban environment.

The two Kaktus Towers of 21- and 24-stories, developed in collaboration with Catella and Per Høpfner, contain 495 apartments and are designed to accommodate micro living with compact homes and spacious, shared amenities. Situated within a web of movement, the towers feature a green plateau that doubles as a one km-long public park raising eight meters above the bustling Dybbølsbro train station. The park stretches from the Kaktus Towers to the new finance district, Postgrunden, connecting otherwise isolated areas along the post-industrial strip.

BIG is set to transform a former supermarket building into the new Museum for Paper Art in the North Jutland region of Denmark. With paper art deeply rooted in the Danish cultural heritage, including the iconic folded lampshades by Le Klint and H.C. Andersen’s paper clips, the conversion and extension of the building intends to double the museum’s annual number of visitors as well as embrace paper as an art form and expertise.

The Museum for Paper Art, founded by psaligrapher Bit Vejle in 2018, is the only specialised museum for paper fine crafts and design in the Nordics. The approximately 900 m2 former supermarket building will be renovated and expanded by BIG to create a 2300 m2 museum with space for workshops, events, teaching rooms, storage, and office facilities. The adaptive reuse project is pursuing DGNB Gold or Platinum certification.

“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

At this year’s Sages & Scientists Symposium, BIG’s Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels took the stage alongside Founding Partner of Global Infrastructure Partners Matthew Harris and author Deepak Chopra to talk about Gelephu Mindfulness City and the importance of regenerative systems. Hosted at the historic Sanders Theatre at Harvard University, the annual event, organized by the Chopra Foundation, invites entrepreneurs, philosophers, medical experts, scientists, and artists to discuss conscious collaboration for global transformation.

The BIG HQ in Copenhagen is featured on the cover of German magazine DETAIL’s September issue. The 14-page story dives deep into the building’s construction, materials, and craftsmanship and features a Q&A with BIG’s Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels alongside an interview with Associate and BIG HQ Design Lead Frederik Lyng.

Architecturally anchored in Copenhagen harbour’s heritage of warehouses and factories, the 7-storey BIG HQ is BIG’s first example of fully integrated LEAP design – a collaboration between Landscape, Engineering, Architecture, and Product designers. 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. “We needed to create a building that felt like a single, vast space. A space in which every staff member feels like part of a big team,” remarks Lyng in the story.

CopenHill has been selected to be featured in an exhibition at Harvard University titled “Architecture as an Instruction-based Art.” Curated by Harvard Graduate School of Design Professor Farshid Moussavi and co-curator Abby Kuohn, the exhibition explores a selection of architectural works focusing on how architects use drawings to guide construction teams from start to finish. “Architecture as an Instruction-based Art” will run until October 14th at Harvard’s Druker Design Gallery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

BIG welcomed 250+ guests at its headquarters in Copenhagen for the opening dinner of CHART Art Fair. As the leading event for contemporary art, design, and architecture in the Nordics, the CHART Art Fair invites visitors to explore Copenhagen’s strongholds of art, design, and architecture over the span of four days. The evening featured welcome speeches by CHART Director Julie Quottrup Silbermann and BIG CEO Sheela Søgaard followed by a dinner prepared by BIG’s in-house restaurant, BIG FISK, led by head chef Mikkel Karstad.

Selected by public voting, the Urban Life huts in Aarhus have been named “The City’s Best Architecture” in the annual Byens Bedste (The City’s Best) – an awards program organized by local newspaper Århus Stiftstidende recognizing the best businesses, places, and experiences in the city of Aarhus, Denmark.

As part of the Aarhus Harbor Masterplan designed in collaboration with Gehl Architects, the 13 commercial huts sit at the edge of the waterfront, housing both cafés, bars, and coffee shops. Each hut has its own distinct architectural character, constructed in a variation of materials, ranging from cork and wood to glass and straw.

Arkitekten, published by the Danish Association of Architects, features the BIG HQ in Copenhagen as the cover story in the August issue. In the nine-page story titled ‘Concrete Ballet,’ Architect and Associate Professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Architecture Kristine Annabell Torp claims the building ‘a masterpiece.’

Since the fall of 2023, BIG’s Danish-based staff of 350 employees has inhabited the 7-storey HQ at the tip of Sundmolen. This summer, the BIG Landscape-designed park officially opened at the foot the building, offering Copenhageners and visitors a new urban park and waterfront promenade in the city.

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 for centuries. The museum is scheduled for completion in 2025.

Designed in collaboration with ARTS Group and Front Inc., Suzhou Museum of Contemporary Art is part of the city’s development of the Jinji Lake and reimagines the traditional garden ‘lang,’ 廊 – a line that traces a path – framing gardens with outdoor art installations and coalescing as pavilions. The design of the museum showcases Suzhou’s garden tradition and takes visitors on a journey through art, nature, and water.

“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 and Creative Director, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group

Sales for the NOT A HOTEL Setouchi villas are now open. Located on a 30,000-m2 site on the remote island of Sagishima in Japan, NOT A HOTEL Setouchi brings three villas to the southwestern cape of the island with panoramic views of the Seto Inland Sea.

Each three- and four-bedroom villa has distinct design characteristics that fit into their specific location onsite, referencing the design of traditional Japanese single-story houses and incorporating materials local to Japan – including Japanese black slate, wood, and rammed Earth. The ring-shaped ‘360’ villa 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.

Based on a shared ownership model, buyers can purchase a set number of nights at the resort – between 30 and 365 – per year. NOT A HOTEL Setouchi is under construction and is set to open in 2026.

Google Gradient Canopy, the ground-up Google campus designed by BIG in collaboration with Heatherwick Studio, is officially LEED-NC v4 Platinum certified, taking the title from Google Bay View as the largest LEED v4 BD+C: NC Platinum-certified project in the world.

Situated in the North Bayshore area of Mountain View and adjacent to Charleston Park, Google Gradient Canopy includes workspace for Googlers and 10,000 sq ft of space open to the public. The 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. The landscape design of the site’s 18 acres mimics natural habitats indigenous to the region, consisting primarily of native species including 380 native trees, while over 90% of the plants provide nectar for native pollinators. During construction, an onsite waste management process diverted over 90% of construction waste from landfills.

In addition to the new LEED certification, Gradient Canopy is also one of the largest facilities ever to attain the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) Living Building Challenge (LBC) Materials Petal Certification.

British news media The Guardian features the Dortheavej Residences in a story highlighting six social housing projects around the world that prioritizes quality construction, sustainability, and quality of life. Completed in 2018 in Copenhagen’s Nordvest district, Dortheavej offers 66 units for low-income citizens, each with a balcony and floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing plenty of natural light and views of the neighboring green space.

Architect and TV host George Clarke visits Villa Gug in the 12th season of “George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces,” a television series on the UK’s Channel 4 exploring extraordinary homes across the world. Named after its location at the top of the Gug Alps in Northern Denmark, Villa Gug is a private home informed by the client’s passion for cars. Instead of hiding the cars away in a basement, BIG designed a house that curves in a loop, creating a smooth transition from the garage and showroom at the driveway into the more open functional spaces above.

BIG and Japanese hospitality group NOT A HOTEL’s newest project NOT A HOTEL Setouchi officially breaks ground on the remote Sagi Island in Japan. Located on a 30,000 m² site, the resort will bring three villas to the southwestern cape of the island, expanding the luxury hospitality company’s existing portfolio of six resorts across Japan. Mihara Mayor Yoshihiro Okada attended the ceremony to help celebrate the project milestone.

The design for NOT A HOTEL Setouchi builds on the longstanding dialogue between Scandinavian and Japanese design values. The resort weaves through the site like a ribbon, intentionally blending into the natural contours of the undulating landscape and aligning with existing roads and infrastructure. NOT A HOTEL Setouchi incorporates local materials like Japanese black slate, wood, and rammed earth while promoting a deep connection to nature. The property is slated to open in 2026.

Tishman Speyer announces five new lease agreements at The Spiral totaling 129,500 sq ft, landing tenant occupancy at 81% less than two years since opening. These lease agreements include international financial institution HSBC – which has expanded its lease to include the remaining portions of the double height 29th and 30th floors – along with global tech firm XR Extreme Reach and two investment management firms.

The Spiral – located on the west side of Manhattan in New York City – 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. Cascading landscaped terraces and hanging gardens climb the building in a spiraling motion to create a unique, continuous green ribbon that wraps around the façade and supplies each office floor with readily accessible terraces. 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. 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.

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.

BIG wishes you a happy Juneteenth!

The 76,000-sq-ft National Juneteenth Museum – led by the ‘Grandmother of Juneteenth’ Ms. Opal Lee and designed by BIG in collaboration with KAI Enterprises – will preserve the history of Juneteenth and its legacy of freedom.

Located in the Historic Southside of Fort Worth, Texas, 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.

Led by BIG Partner Leon Rost – a California native – BIG’s L.A. studio is located a few blocks from the beach within the Santa Monica Central Business District, joining BIG’s global network of studios in Copenhagen, New York, London, Barcelona, Shenzhen, Zurich, and Oslo.

“The search for our new home in L.A. followed the pursuits that often define our work – connection to nature, water, and sky, as well as to city, history, and community. We found it all in this gem, a 1928 building in Santa Monica designed by legendary architect Paul Williams.

As a Japanese Californian I am excited to root BIG on the Pacific Coast. In the city of storytelling, big dreams, and a pioneer spirit, I am certain L.A. will be a fertile frontier for continued experimentation. You could say BIG – though born in Copenhagen – has always been an Angeleno at heart.” – Leon Rost, Partner, BIG

The BIG-designed NYPD 40th Precinct won the Special Award for Innovation in Civic Design in this year’s SARA NY Design Awards.

Located in the southern Bronx, New York, the new NYPD 40^th Precinct Station replaces a station house on 138^th Street and creates a dedicated space for the community, areas for fitness, and training for officers. The 45,000-sq-ft, three-story building includes the first community event space to be located at an NYPD facility, which aims to promote civic engagement and encourage dialogue with the community. The form of the building is derived from its programmatic requirements, where individual volumes contain specific elements of the program, revolving around a 60-ft light-filled atrium.

The Delancey Street Pedestrian Bridge – part of BIG’s East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project in Manhattan – was installed overnight above FDR Drive in Manhattan, connecting the Lower East Side neighborhood to the East River. The 215-foot long, 125-ton assembled bridge was transported along FDR Drive to its final location using self-propelled modular transporters over a span of eight hours overnight, minimizing traffic disruption. The bridge – the first of three within the ESCR project – is set to open to the public in September 2024.

ESCR emerged from the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Rebuild by Design competition, which sought to develop innovative design solutions to increase the resiliency of Sandy-impacted communities. Spanning a 2.5-mile area from Montgomery Street to East 25th Street within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 100-year floodplain, the project is designed to protect and improve the resiliency of the large and diverse residential community of 110,000+ New Yorkers – including approximately 28,000 NYCHA residents. ESCR will also offer protection to critical infrastructure – including a major pump station and an electrical substation that powers much of Lower Manhattan – as well as numerous local schools and libraries.

BIG Partner Agustin Perez-Torres spoke about CopenHill at the Reusing Rooftops conference in Barcelona, focusing on how the building not only contributes to the waste management and energy production of Copenhagen, but also offers a recreational space for residents and visitors on its roof. Co-organized by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation during Barcelona Architecture Weeks, the event was a part of a broader initiative to discuss the utilization of rooftops, including an international idea competition to redefine the urban spaces of Barcelona’s Eixample district.

The Plus was named Best New Building at the 2024 BREEAM Awards in Oslo, Norway. Organized by the Norwegian Green Building Alliance, the awards program celebrates projects dedicated to sustainability documented through the BREAAM-certification system. The 7000 m2 factory and visitor center, designed for furniture manufacturer Vestre, is dedicated to the cleanest carbon-neutral fabrication of urban furniture, leading the way for manufacturing facilities and high-efficiency production of the future.

“The Plus has set a new standard for industrial buildings and has become an attraction in the industry and the local area. It is a unique building with a good combination of industry, architecture, and sustainability. They have actively spread the message about the sustainability qualities they have achieved both nationally and internationally, and that they have prioritized sustainability in this project despite a higher cost. The project has had a holistic sustainability mindset that also includes the products that are produced in the building. The Plus has achieved the highest available BREEAM-NOR classification; Outstanding.”, says the Jury.

Bjarke Ingels was a keynote speaker at the annual Art Directors Club (ADC) Congress in Hamburg, Germany. As part of the ADC Festival 2024, the ADC Congress brought together international speakers from science, journalism, business, communication, and technology to discuss how creativity can influence the world and solve challenges.

Bjarke gave insights into BIG’s creative process and idea of ‘Formgiving,’ or giving form to the future, while presenting some of BIG’s work, including Project Olympus, a collaboration between ICON, SEArch+, and NASA to design a lunar habitat set to be the first human foray into extra-terrestrial construction.

BIG Founder & Creative Director Bjarke Ingels is interviewed for SHARP Magazine’s spring/summer issue of The Book For Men, a Canadian bi-annual publication that covers travel, automobiles, fashion, culture, business, and more. In his interview, Bjarke shares how he first fell in love with architecture and discusses his core philosophies and BIG’s ethos, rooted in oxymorons such as ‘hedonistic sustainability’ and ‘pragmatic utopia.’ The article also highlights BIG’s work in Canada, including Vancouver House, Telus Sky, Habitat 67, and King Toronto – a 16-storey modular residential building with lush terraces that bridge the gap between inside and out.

BIG’s Landscape Partner Giulia Frittoli joined the Urbcast podcast’s landscape architecture series to speak about how to challenge the traditional boundaries in projects. During the interview, Giulia shared her professional journey and BIG’s principles in landscape architecture, emphasizing the importance of understanding context and culture.

The 135,000-sq-ft Robert Day Sciences Center at Claremont McKenna College – one of the top liberal arts colleges in the U.S. – tops out in Claremont, California. The Robert Day Sciences Center will be home to the college’s next-generation Kravis Department of Integrated Sciences, the multi-disciplinary center to advance gene, brain and climate knowledge. Designed as a stack of two volumes, or rectangular ‘blocks’ – two per floor – each pair is rotated 45 degrees from the floor below. On the interior, the volumes are expressed as stacked trusses with floor-to-ceiling partitions providing visibility between spaces. The rotation of each floor creates a central sky-lit atrium at the heart of the building that provides direct views into classrooms and research spaces from all levels.

“The topping out of the Robert Day Sciences Center is a pivotal moment in realizing our Claremont McKenna College Campus masterplan. The building serves as a social meeting place on campus as well as an academic intersection of computer science, data science and life sciences. Its architecture of intersecting volumes of labs and classrooms not only creates a multitude of meeting points and perspectives between student body and faculty, but also allows for the axis of the campus mall to turn, continuing to extend the campus grounds.

The topping out of the Claremont McKenna College Robert Day Sciences Center coincides with the opening of our Los Angeles studio as we continue to grow our portfolio of academic and cultural works along the U.S. Pacific Coast.” – Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG

Developed in close collaboration between BIG, Saiful Bouquet, KPRS and Herrick since 2022, the project has grown BIG’s presence and passion for the western U.S. Aiming for LEED Gold, the building will serve a community of 1,400 students and is anticipated to complete in 2025.

The concrete structure of the Cité de l’Innovation has reached its highest point in Paris, France. Set to complete in 2025, the 15,000 m2 multidisciplinary research center will be a significant addition to Sorbonne University’s Faculty of Science, strengthen knowledge-sharing with the wider French society, and support academic scholars in their entrepreneurial pursuits.

Johns Hopkins University held a beam signing ceremony to celebrate its Hopkins Student Center topping out in Baltimore, Maryland. At the milestone event, JHU President Ron Daniels thanked attendees for their contributions to the building, while Rachelle Hernandez, vice provost for student affairs, explained that the building’s completion will make possible many improvements to campus life.

The Hopkins Student Center will form a new social engagement hub for all members of the school 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 33^rd and Charles Streets, the Hopkins Student Center will foster greater connectivity between the campus and the neighboring Charles Village community by creating a prominent point of entry.

The Hopkins Student Center is scheduled to open in July 2025.

BIG HQ in Copenhagen has received the City’s highest honor for how the building considers the character of its surroundings and contributes to the urban environment of the city. Anchored in the industrial history and maritime infrastructure of Copenhagen’s north harbor, the 4.880 m2 headquarters is the first realized example of a fully integrated LEAP-design – a collaboration between BIG’s Landscape, Engineering, Architecture and Product designers. The building is designed to achieve DGNB Gold through use of FutureCem concrete, which reduces CO2 emission with approx. 25%, integration of solar and geothermal energy systems, and natural ventilation of the office spaces.

International financial institution HSBC inaugurated its new U.S. headquarters at The Spiral on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, marking its largest U.S. relocation to date. BIG Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels spoke at the celebratory event alongside HSBC Group Chairman Mark Tucker, HSBC CEO for the U.S. and Americas Michael Roberts, Mayor of New York City Eric Adams, Former Mayor of New York City and Co-Founder of Bloomberg L.P. Michael R. Bloomberg, and Partnership for New York City President and CEO Kathryn Wylde. As part of the ceremony, guests placed artifacts unique and meaningful to HSBC into a time capsule, which will be reopened in 40 years to mark the Bank’s bicentennial.

Developed by Tishman Speyer, built by Turner, and designed by BIG, The Spiral promotes a contemporary workplace where nature becomes an integrated part of the office environment and spatial features are adaptable to the changing needs of its occupants. As the tower 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. The building is pursuing LEED Silver certification.

BIG Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels sat down with Fast Company’s Executive Editor Amy Farley for a conversation entitled ‘The Future of Experiential’ as part of the XP Fronts series during C2 Montreal (C2MTL). In his conversation, Bjarke delved into BIG projects including Gelephu Mindfulness City, VLTAVA Philharmonic Prague, Athletics Ballpark Las Vegas and Zurich Airport Dock A among others.

C2MTL is an annual conference held in Quebec that brings together businesses and creative communities, representing an intersection of commerce and creativity.

BIG’s Founder & Creative Director Bjarke Ingels is featured in the Spring issue of Family Style magazine in conversation with the founders of the Amsterdam-based art studio DRIFT Ralph Nauta and Lonneke Gordijn. During the conversation, the three discuss the intersection of art, technology, and nature in their respective fields, highlighting their shared philosophy of challenging the traditional boundaries of design.

BIG unveils the design for NOT A HOTEL Setouchi, which will expand the luxury hospitality company’s existing six resort offerings across Japan. Located on a 30,000-square-metre site on the remote island of Sagishima, the resort brings three villas to the southwestern cape of the island with panoramic views of the Seto Inland Sea.

The design for NOT A HOTEL Setouchi builds on the longstanding dialogue between Scandinavian and Japanese design values. Expected to break ground later this year, the resort weaves through site like a ribbon, intentionally blending into the undulating landscape’s natural contours and aligning with existing roads and infrastructure. NOT A HOTEL Setouchi incorporates local materials like Japanese black slate, wood and rammed earth while promoting a connection to nature.

“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

The Danish King Frederik the 10th and Queen Mary visited Oslo Science City together with Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon to meet with leading researchers in quantum and sensor technology and learn more about the importance of strengthening Danish-Norwegian cooperation in emerging critical technologies.

Since 2021, BIG has worked on the 1.4 million m2 extension of the Oslo Science City aimed at creating a physical framework for Norway’s innovation environment of estimated 150,000 scientists, students, entrepreneurs that will contribute to the country’s transition to renewable energy.

Together with Lonestar Data Holdings, BIG designed the Freedom Payload data center, which will travel to the Moon with Intuitive Machines on a NASA CLPS mission. As the first 3D-printed data center, the Freedom Payload can store up to eight terabytes of data and will be entirely solar powered and naturally cooled. Illustrating BIG’s ethos of giving form to the future, it is designed to feature the profiles of two NASA astronauts – Charlie Duke and Nicole Stott – whose faces will cast changing shadows on the Moon throughout the lunar day (14 Earth days) for thousands of years to come. As the first physical data center located off-Earth, this signifies the initial step in space becoming a recognized home for data management.

Italian news media la Repubblica has published a guide to the best design spots in Copenhagen, highlighting BIG’s 8 House and Copenhagen Harbor Bath, as well as naming waste-to-energy plant CopenHill and urban park Superkilen “iconic examples of modern architecture and urban space”.

Ms. Opal Lee is one of 19 people to receive the United States’ highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded by U.S. President Joe Biden. Educator and civil rights activist Ms. Opal Lee is known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth” for her efforts to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. “We’re a better nation because of you,” Biden told Lee at the ceremony.

Declared a federal holiday in the U.S. in 2021, Juneteenth commemorates the Emancipation Proclamation’s enforcement and the liberation of the enslaved both in Texas and throughout the United States, which happened on June 19, 1865.

With Ms. Opal Lee at the helm, a new National Juneteenth Museum, designed by BIG and Kai Enterprises, will open in Ms. Lee’s hometown of Fort Worth, TX, and will be dedicated to preserving the history of Juneteenth and legacy of freedom.

At this year’s iF Design Trend Conference in Berlin, BIG Landscape Partner Giulia Frittoli gave a lecture titled “Social Nature – Designing Cities for People and the Planet”, speaking about how BIG’s planning approach is inspired by the interplay between built and natural environments. The conference, themed “How can design help drive the transformation towards a future worth living?”, brought together designers and industry experts to learn about global and interdisciplinary design trends and their significance for the future. The conference further marked the launch of iF’s yearly trend report, to which Giulia contributed with her insights into the drivers that will shape our urban environment in the coming years.

BIG Founder & Creative Director Bjarke Ingels is the feature cover story in the U.S. edition of Business Traveler’s May issue. Throughout the in-depth piece, Bjarke talks about the early days of BIG and delves into a wide range of the firm’s projects, from some of the earliest – CopenHill and LEGO House – to some of the current and most recent – The Spiral and Zurich Airport Dock A.

“…There’s a culture among the [BIG] team of alignment—we all have a similar way of looking at the world. Every project needs to fulfill someone’s dream, but that doesn’t have to always be my dream, although it’s always my job to make sure we are free to pursue it, no matter who suggested it.” – Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Creative Director, BIG

Together with Core Studio at Thornton Tomasetti and McNeel Europe, BIG’s Design Technology team co-hosted the annual AECtech+ in Barcelona, an event exploring the latest developments in technology. Senior Computational Design Specialist Anders Holden Deleuran delivered a workshop on the untapped potential of GHPPython components, followed by a lecture by Design Technology Manager German Otto Bodenbender on how BIG deploys computational design across architectural projects.

The weekend concluded with a 26-hour hackathon at the BIG Barcelona office, inviting programmers, developers, engineers, and enthusiasts of all levels to collaborate, and brainstorm new ideas.

BIG and By & Havn marked the completion of the lighthouse on the tip of the Sundmolen pier, bringing the public spaces surrounding our Copenhagen headquarters one step closer to realization. The event featured a lantern workshop, live music, and speeches before watching the lighthouse light up for the first time together with neighbors and residents of Nordhavn. In June, BIG will inaugurate the public park surrounding the Copenhagen HQ, designed by BIG’s Landscape team.

BIG in partnership with BNIM and the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design unveil a new mass timber building for learning and collaboration, titled the “Makers’ KUbe.” Along with housing studio space, the KUbe will also serve as a teaching tool, showcasing sustainable practices through its mass timber diagrid design and is developed through collaboration with the school’s 1,300+ students, faculty and board. 

The 50,000 sq ft, six-story Makers’ KUbe features a distinct timber diagrid frame – engineered by structural engineer StructureCraft – optimized to reduce material and carbon-intensive concrete. The Makers’ KUbe will connect to the existing Marvin and Chalmers Halls via winter garden bridges, consolidating all of the school’s programs into these three buildings.

“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

BIG NYC Associate Dominyka Voelkle was a spotlight speaker at Facades+, the premier conference for high-performance building enclosures, hosted by The Architect’s Newspaper. Voelkle spoke at the NYC and Nashville events about the process for designing and building The Spiral as well as Google Gradient Canopy and CapitaSpring, and answered questions from the crowd.

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 visually extends the landscape of the nearby High Line Park up and around The Spiral’s exterior, allowing access to green outdoor terraces from each of the building’s 66 stories. The Spiral is pursuing LEED Silver certification and was named the world’s Best Tall Building in its category by The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat at the organization’s annual conference last year. The Spiral is BIG’s first completed supertall and first completed commercial high-rise in New York.

The Ski Journal and photographer Kari Medig visited CopenHill for a story about its skiing facilities and how an otherwise piece of social infrastructure has become a recreational hotspot in the city of Copenhagen.

“I was struck by how many people enjoyed a space normally designated for shedding weather or hosting the occasional birds nest. While the major industrial operation burned in the bowels below, this place was so incredibly, well, alive. Hedonistic sustainability indeed.”, Kari Medig concludes.

BIG designs installation for Interni Magazine’s city-wide exhibition in Milan, Italy during Salone del Mobile titled ‘Cross Vision’. Developed by BIG’s product design team in collaboration with German car manufacturer Audi, the installation is inspired by the symmetry of the Piazza del Quadrilatero courtyard, and conceived as two intersecting walls of mirrored steel, dividing the courtyard into four individual spaces. Each space represents a thematic cornerstone of the installation: the Community space for socializing and connecting with visitors, the Knowledge area where an amphitheater will host talks during the design fair, as well as the Innovation and Performance area which showcase Audi’s light design and their newly launched car, the Q6 e-tron.

The Spiral is named best office/retail/mixed-use project by Engineering News-Record in their Best of the Best Awards 2023. The Spiral, located on Manhattan’s west side, is one of 20 projects recognized by ENR editors and roughly 100 construction industry members who judged contest entries.

To commemorate the win, ENR featured The Spiral in its March issue as well as in an awards ceremony held in New York City on April 11.

Partner and Head of BIG Landscape Giulia Frittoli spoke at the annual, international New European Bauhaus Festival in Brussels, Belgium in a panel discussion on challenges and opportunities in transforming the built environment alongside Ciaran Cuffe, Member of the European Parliament and Rapporteur for the Energy Performance in Building Directive, Ireland, Matti Kuittinen, Associate Professor of Sustainable Construction, Aalto University, Johanna Pirinen, Senior Vice President, Stora Enso, Bent Madsen, President, Housing Europe, and Andreja Kutnar, Research and Director, InnoRenew CoE.

In a separate lecture and together with Mikel Landabaso, Director of Fair and Sustainable Economy at the Joint Research Center, Giulia also presented BIG’s design for the new Center in Sevilla, Spain, which will be the headquarters for the European Commission’s team of 400 researchers and support staff.

A Brief History of the Future, a six-part docuseries from PBS focusing on our futures and how we can reimagine them, features BIG’s Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels in an episode dedicated to shaping tomorrow through the built environment. In the show, Bjarke talks about how design shapes our future, using Copenhagen as an example of a place made healthier and happier through urban planning. Bjarke also walks the audience through some of BIG’s designs for a reimagined way of living, including Oceanix, a resilient and sustainable floating community.

A Brief History of the Future explores the possibility of a better future through the insights of a wide range of individuals, including French President Emmanuel Macron, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, sailor Dame Ellen MacArthur, musician Grimes, climate scientist Catherine Hayhoe and football player Kylian Mbappé.

BIG teamed up with structural engineer and builder StructureCraft to unveil a mockup of the new University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design building at the 8th annual International Mass Timber Conference in Portland, Oregon. The full-scale, structural mockup features part of the building exterior’s glulam diagrid achieved with 100% wood connections.

BIG LA partner Leon Rost also spoke at the conference about the use of mass timber in higher education projects, noting the University of Kansas School of Architecture and Design and the Johns Hopkins University Student Center.

The BIG-designed UAE Pavilion at the International Horticultural Expo in Doha has won Gold in the Best Self-Built Pavilion category at the closing event of the 2023 Expo. Selected from the 77 participating countries, the pavilion was honored for its alignment with this year’s theme “Green Desert, Better Environment”, as well as its innovative landscape design, thoughtful plant species selection, use of sustainable materials, guest experience and engaging environmental programming.

The pavilion’s design is inspired by the resilient Ghaf tree and its complex root net, creating a cell structure featuring rammed earth walls, wooden beams, and palm leaf roofs. The structure encompasses 32 gardens of indigenous species, including a total of 6,609 plants with groupings of edible plants, fruit trees, medicinal plants, flowers, spices, shrubs, grasses, industrial plants, and perennials.

BIG welcomes Archi-Tech Network, a collective of practicing architects sharing knowledge around the intersection of Architecture, Technology and Entrepreneurship, for a tour of the firm’s office in London, which opened in 2016. The tour, led by Archi-Tech’s Founder Oliver Thomas, showcases BIG’s London space, architectural models of BIG LON projects, the VR room and the model shop. Following the tour, Oliver sits down to delve into Design Technology and BIM practices at BIG.

BIG’s Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels and Associate Jeremy Alain Siegel speak to Razia Iqbal on BBC World Service’s The Cultural Frontline radio show about Manhattan’s flood defense project. Razia begins the episode at VIA 57 West before meeting Bjarke and Jeremy on Manhattan’s East Side to experience the coastal work firsthand. The episode ends at the BIG NYC offices with a discussion about Bjarke’s life and career.

The BIG-designed East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project emerged from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rebuild by Design competition, which sought to develop innovative design solutions to increase the resiliency of Hurricane Sandy-impacted communities. The 2.5-mile project area is located within the FEMA 100-year floodplain on Manhattan’s East River coastline and is designed to protect and improve the resiliency of more than 110,000 New Yorkers, including approximately 28,000 NYCHA residents.

The BIG-designed Qianhai Prisma Towers won the Diamond Supplier Award at the Supplier Conference this month, hosted by SZ Metro at the Chunquan Cultural Arts Center in Shenzhen, China. The conference convened over 500 high-quality suppliers spanning the ‘Metro and Real Estate’ industry chain to collectively envision a new era of high-quality development. The conference theme, “Empowering Initiatives, Unlimited Possibilities”, sought out to acknowledge outstanding contributions over the past year. The Qianhai Prisma Towers were recognized as one of four Diamond Suppliers – the top tier – underscoring the project’s exceptional performance and unwavering commitment to excellence in collaboration with Shenzhen Metro.

The two ‘leaning’ towers, featuring a 300m2 tall residential tower and a 250m tall office tower, will complete the new Qianhai Bay development, solidifying Qianhai’s position as the burgeoning financial and cultural center of Shenzhen. Expected to begin construction in 2025, the project will be BIG’s second in Shenzhen following Shenzhen Energy Mansion’s completion in 2017. 

The Gastronomy Open Ecosystem has won the Advanced Architecture Award, presented at the 2024 REBUILD Conference in Madrid, the largest innovation forum driving construction industry transformation through digitalization and decarbonization. The project was recognized for how it envisions a meeting point between culture, gastronomy, and the city.

Conceived as an architectural extension of the dramatic landscape and cityscape of San Sebastian, Basque Culinary Center’s new innovation hub will bring together food start-ups, researchers, and chefs under one roof to advance the art and science of gastronomic innovation while offering new public spaces, plazas, and parks.

BIG designs the new Marengo Multimodal Transport Hub in France’s fourth largest city, Toulouse. The 12,000 m2 hub will act as a link between the city center, the UNESCO-listed Canal du Midi, and the Périole neighborhood, uniting railway, metro and bus under one roof.

Located adjacent to the city’s central station, the building is characterized by a wooden structure and rose-colored, crystalline roof, referencing the city’s traditional use of the “foraine” brick. From the main entrance canopy, the structure gradually rises in a sloping movement to pull daylight down to the hub’s lowest levels, accommodating comfortable and safe navigation for travelers throughout the day.

The building is set to attain Silver Occitanie Sustainable Buildings certification, along with the Biodiversity Effinature and HQE Infrastructure certification.

BIG’s Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels presented at the India Today Conclave 2024 in New Delhi. During his talk – which focused on conscious urbanism and designing a mindful city – Bjarke highlighted the Plan for the Planet initiative and BIG projects including Project Olympus and the Gelephu Mindfulness City in Bhutan.

The India Today Conclave is India’s most well-known global thought platform. The event aims at charting a bold new future through free and honest exchange of ideas amongst global minds.

Our masterplan for Aarhus Harbor in Denmark has been named Best Urban Regeneration Project at this year’s MIPIM Awards ceremony in Cannes, France. Selected by votes from the jury and MIPIM delegates, the project is honored for its physical and economic revitalization of the area, consideration of heritage preservation, sustainability, access, and integration of the project in its environment and community.

Tasked to transform a formerly industrial harbor into a vibrant neighborhood on the waterfront of Aarhus, we collaborated with Gehl Architects to create the framework for public life first, leaving plots for residential developments to be shaped by the life that preceded them. Today, a public promenade activates the entire waterfront, zig-zagging along the pier and defining a series of new public spaces on land and on water.

The masterplan includes the BIG-designed Aarhus Harbor Bath, Aarhus Theater, Kampanilen, AARhus Residences, the Beach Huts, the Urban Life huts, the Scandic wellness hotel, as well as SLETH’s Karréerne.

In a series of announcements at this year’s South by Southwest Festival in Austin, TX, construction technology company ICON and BIG unveiled CODEX, a digital catalog of 3D-printed homes. The catalog features five ready-to-print home collections each based on a different program, with over 60 designs across a range of price points.

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

Every home in CODEX is designed to be printed using 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.

Construction technology company ICON unveiled a series of new projects at this year’s South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, including the new AI architect Vitruvius. Leveraging advanced AI technology to harness expertise from top architects, Vitruvius offers a cooperative home design process that is finely tuned to understand building and design requirements.

To help introduce Vitruvius to the audience alongside ICON’s CEO and Co-Founder Jason Ballard, BIG’s Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels spoke on-stage about AI and the future of architecture.

“In my mind, the future will be designed by both human and artificial designers. There is no better way to contribute to the future than by spending energy, attention and investment into educating the designers that will give form to the future – whether human or artificial. By opening up Vitruvius to all of you and the world today, we are essentially starting what I believe will be a lifelong education of the artificial architects of tomorrow.” – Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Creative Director, BIG

Domus features the Tirpitz Museum in an article about the history and benefits of underground architecture, emphasizing the minimal effects on microclimates and reduction of the ecological footprint.

Located on the shorelands of Denmark’s west coast, the Tirpitz Museum is a cultural complex transformed from a historic WWII concrete bunker, seamlessly embedded into its surrounding landscape and acting as a gentle counterbalance to the dramatic history of the site.

Architectural Digest features the Kaktus Towers and El Cosmico in their report on how they anticipate the architecture discipline to develop in 2024. Emphasizing the continued importance of public and shared spaces in our societies, Kaktus Towers’ integration of in- and outdoor communal areas throughout the two towers is highlighted as an example of how design can strengthen social cohesion in residential projects.

El Cosmico, the hotel and campground in Marfa, Texas, is featured as an example on how 3D printing is making its way into large-scale architecture. Developed in collaboration with ICON and Texas-based hotelier Liz Lambert, the project features 3D-printed structures including domes, arches, vaults, and parabolic forms.

BIG’s Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels spoke at Architects, not Architecture’s New York Edition event alongside architect Toshiko Mori. Bjarke spoke about the experiences that have shaped him and his career, including his personal evolutionary journey within the first quarter of his life, from his first memory to the opening of his first architecture firm PLOT.

Architects, not Architecture was founded in Hamburg in 2015 to host events that invite well-known architects to talk about themselves rather than their architecture practices. They speak about their path, their influences and experiences, and dive deeper into their intellectual biography, shedding light on the enormous influences that are normally left in the shadows. Over the past 10 years, there have been more than 75 AnA events in 12 different countries, with over 200 world-renowned architects gracing the AnA stage.

BIG and HNTB unveil a design for the Athletics Major League Baseball team’s new ballpark on the Las Vegas Strip. The 33,000-capacity covered ballpark 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 presented 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 also 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.

“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

The new home for the Athletics has an expected opening date of spring 2028.

ELLE Decor Japan has published an article highlighting a selection of BIG’s projects, focusing on how they interpret local history and culture while integrating new technologies. The article features 13 projects, including the waste-to-energy plant CopenHill in Copenhagen, the “floating” Sluishius residences in Amsterdam, and BIG’s first supertall The Spiral in New York.

Douglass Alligood, Partner in BIG’s NYC office, is named to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows, AIA’s highest membership honor.

The AIA fellowship program was developed to elevate those architects who have achieved a standard of excellence in the profession and made a significant contribution to architecture and society on a national level. The achievement is attained by less than three percent of the architecture profession.

Douglass Alligood is a planner and architect with over 40 years of experience working across a range of projects including commercial towers, cultural institutions, education, health science, sports facilities, residential and master planning. Currently, he is leading the design for the National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, Texas and is also working on the Athletics Ballpark in Las Vegas. Since becoming a Partner at BIG in 2021, he has focused on increasing the firm’s technical expertise in the functional aspects of design and building performance. Douglass has been a volunteer and appointed member of several community planning groups, including the non-profit Urban Design Forum and The National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA). He also mentors young professionals and architecture students.

BIG welcomed 150 industry peers at the Copenhagen HQ for a conference on “Nordic Design Excellence”. Organized by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the world’s leading resource for professionals in design, construction, and operations of tall building and future cities, the program included a keynote speech by President of CTBUH, Anthony Wood, and presentations by Anne Skovbro, CEO at By & Havn, Morten Kirban Rix, Project Director at Incuba, Sonja Stockmarr, Global Design Director at Henning Larsen, and Brian Yang, Partner at BIG, among others.

BIG designs this year’s visual identity for annual design festival in Copenhagen, 3daysofdesign. Centered around the 2024 theme “Dare To Dream”, the identity uses 3D-modeled renderings to form furniture and clouds connected by a staircase to embody the spirit of imagination, collaboration, and optimism.

In a story about the city of Bordeaux in France, National Geographic Spain highlights cultural center MÉCA as a new architectural icon of the city. Centrally located between the River Garonne and Saint-Jean train station, MÉCA creates a frame for the celebration of contemporary art, film, and performances, cementing Bordeaux as an epicenter for culture.

Fort Worth-based Burlington Northern Sante Fe Railway, operator of one of the largest railroad networks in North America, makes a naming-rights gift of $2 million toward the construction of the National Juneteenth Museum in the Historic Southside neighborhood of Fort Worth, Texas.

The gift comes on the heels of significant donations including Fort Worth City Council committing $15 million to the project, as well as the state of Texas and Bank of America each donating $1 million. So far, the organization has raised over $30 million of the $70 million total that it seeks.

The 50,000-square-foot National Juneteenth Museum, designed by BIG, 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.

NASA is looking for four participants to live in the BIG-designed Mars simulation, Mars Dune Alpha, for one full year in preparation for human exploration of the planet. This is the second of three missions in NASA’s CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) program, in which four volunteers will live in the 1,700-square-foot habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The ground mission will begin in spring 2025.

Mars Dune Alpha, 3D-printed by construction company ICON and designed by BIG, features private quarters for each volunteer, with dedicated workstations, medical stations, food-growing stations and shared living spaces. Life in Mars Dune Alpha will resemble the expected experience for those living in a future Mars surface habitat, complete with the typical environmental stressors of the planet as well as limited resources.

In an article exploring sensory environments created through architecture and art, ArchDaily includes The Sphere, a scenography installation designed by BIG Products for Danish music trio WhoMadeWho. The article describes the scenography as an example of interdisciplinary collaboration with architects playing a pivotal role in enriching public life and fostering meaningful connections.

Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet is featured in an article by Tatler Asia detailing its design and visitor experience.

“The living museum in Le Brassus, Switzerland fully expresses the manufacturer’s boundless creativity in the art and science of watchmaking, housed in an impressive modern building flanked by a traditional Swiss house and the leafy Risoud Forest,” writes reporter Brian Cheong.

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.

Partner João Albuquerque gave a lecture at the opening of this year’s Madrid Design Festival, speaking about BIG’s design philosophy and practice. Under the theme “Redesigning the World”, the city-wide design festival brought together nearly 700 designers, specialists, and researchers in the Spanish capital to address how design can develop solutions to the complex challenges our societies face.

BIG unveils the design for Freedom Plaza, a plan for a new civic and cultural hub along Manhattan’s East River. Designed by BIG and developed by Soloviev Group and Mohegan Sun, Freedom Plaza sits on a waterfront site south of the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan’s Midtown East neighborhood. The development will bring a 4.77-acre public waterfront open space designed by OJB Landscape Architecture with an in-park Museum of Freedom and Democracy, two residential towers with much-needed affordable housing, two hotels including New York’s first Banyan Tree, 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.

“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

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung spotlights the Kaktus Towers in Copenhagen. The two residential towers of 20- and 22-storeys contain 495 apartments and are designed to accommodate tiny living with compact homes and spacious, shared amenities.

Situated within a web of movement, the towers feature a 150-meter-long high line-esque public park, planted with native trees, shrubs, and grasses. At the base of the towers, a plaza with a café, gym, and staircase leading up to the park is located, connecting to the stream of pedestrians emerging from the train station on the northern side of the towers and the local shopping mall towards the south.

Japanese design magazine Casa BRUTUS features the new Copenhagen HQ for an article focusing on lighting design and how it can transform spaces. Delving into the lamps incorporated in the headquarters, the article showcases designs from the BIG product design team’s previous collaborations with Italian lamp manufacturer Artemide, including La Linea, Alphabet of Light, and Stellar Nebula.