Lectures

BIG participated in this year’s Folkemøde (The People’s Meeting – an annual political festival in Denmark celebrating democracy) as partner of the real estate industry’s Vandkantsscene and contributed to discussions on how we will build, live and power our future. BIG Partner David Zahle joined the panel discussion “Housing on Wegovy – Will We Live Smaller in the Future?”, alongside Laura Kock Nielsen, Board Member at Lærlinge for Bæredygtighed (Apprentices for Sustainability), Ditte Lysgaard Vind, Innovation and Knowledge Director at BLOXHUB and Julia Lahme, CEO at Lahme Kommunikation. At Byggepladsscenen, BIG Partner, Finn Nørkjær, took part in the debate “Architecture vs. Sustainability – Is It Either-Or?”, examining how architectural quality and environmental performance can act as mutually reinforcing drivers in shaping the built environment. David Zahle further participated in the discussion “The Future of Solar Cells: Can Europe Take Back Energy?”, moderated by Sune Holst, journalist and moderator at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Southern Denmark. Joining the conversation were Morten Madsen, Professor at the University of Southern Denmark; Alfred Arnborg, Analyst at Think Tank EUROPA; and Christina Gordon Christiansen, ESG Director at P+. The panel explored the potential of next-generation solar technologies and the role architecture can play in integrating energy production into the buildings of the future.

Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director of BIG, participated in the second edition of the Bread & Heart Festival in Tirana, held from June 3 to 5. Drawing more than 200 architects, urban planners, developers, and professionals from around the world, this year’s edition explored the theme “Landscapes of Abundance,” reflecting a broader perspective on Albania’s future development.

On the festival’s public day, Bjarke joined a panel discussion on climate-resilient cities and a conversation linked to his guest editorship of Domus, before delivering a keynote titled “Utopian Pragmatism: Materializing Mindfulness.” BIG’s latest monograph with Phaidon, BIG Atlas, was also presented as part of the festival’s Book Pavilion.

The festival brought together a roster of leading global voices in architecture and design, including Francis Kéré, Jeanne Gang, Sumayya Vally, Pierre de Meuron, Reinier de Graaf, Stefano Boeri, Kersten Geers, Benedetta Tagliabue, and Ma Yansong.

During this year’s DUMBO Design Day – a celebration of the creative Brooklyn neighborhood that over 160 architecture and design firms call home – Two Trees hosted a BIG-focused talk in honor of Phaidon’s new monograph, BIG Atlas. The conversation, moderated by Female Design Council Founder Lora Appleton and held on the rooftop of BIG’s New York City HQ, brought together BIG’s Technical Director Tracey Coffin and Director of Interiors and Associate Pauline Lavie-Luong to reflect on the firm’s built work, how Tracey and Pauline lead their respective teams, and their personal journeys at BIG.

At the 25th edition of Business Arena North in Stockholm – a meeting place for decision-makers in the real estate and community building sector – BIG Associate Tomas Minör took part in a panel discussion and presented a keynote on the main stage focused on sustainability and urban development. The panel discussion on Important Values in Contemporary Urban Development brought together CEO of Strawberry Living, Mattias Stengl; Partner & Interior Architect at Tengbom Stockholm, Nadia Tolstoy; and Land and Development Manager at Luleå Municipality, Roger Tuomas. Tomas’ keynote , Waterfront Urban Development in Aarhus – and Google’s office in California, provided an international perspective at the Stockholm event, highlighting BIG’s Aarhus Masterplan in Denmark and Google Bay View in California, USA.

At the 208^th edition of Zak World of Façades, BIG Senior Architect Luis Delgado took part in the panel conversation “Facades in 21st Century Barcelona: Identity, Innovation and Sustainability for the Future”. The panel brought together Partner of Societat Organica, Albert Sagrera Cuscó, Technical Director of Talleres Inox, Jordi Vila Alsina, Co-Founder of DOS54, Maria Cedó, and Partner and Director of Technology at b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos, Pablo Garrido, to discuss the architectural identity between Barcelona’s architectural heritage and the new demands of the urban landscape. The event brought together architects, engineers, and façade specialists, showcasing and exploring sustainable innovations and the latest technological solutions.

At this year’s World Cities Day held in Bogotá, Colombia, BIG NYC Associate Jeremy Alain Siegel presented strategies for integrating sustainability, climate adaptation, and nature into urban design. Aligned with the 2025 theme “People-Centered Smart Cities,” Jeremy focused on BIG’s coastal resilience proposal for Lower Manhattan, the BIG U – a 10-mile system of flood and storm protection developed after Superstorm Sandy – as a leading example of combining social infrastructure with climate-responsive design.

Organized by UN-Habitat, World Cities Day is held annually on October 31 to raise awareness and inspire action toward inclusive, future-ready, and sustainable cities.

During Salone del Mobile 2025 – Milan’s annual Design Week – Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Creative Director of BIG, was invited to speak at Drafting Futures. Conversations about Next Perspectives. The conversation between Bjarke and Annalisa Rosso, Salone’s Editorial Director & Cultural Events Advisor, centered around Bjarke’s approach to design, which transcends functionality to actively shape the human experience, and how materiality, technology, and human interaction can redefine the future of urban planning.

The 92nd Street Y in New York City hosted Bjarke Ingels and artist/entrepreneur Fanyu Lin for a dynamic discussion as part of the arts and cultural hub’s “Architecture Talk” series. Together, Bjarke and Fanyu explored the power of saying “yes,” innovative housing solutions including BIG’s 8 House in Copenhagen, how BIG’s work embodies the forward-thinking approaches needed to address today’s most pressing challenges, and more.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bjarke Ingels spoke at the Center for Architecture and Metropolitan Planning in Prague as part of their Urban Talks series, marking the opening of the Prague Tomorrow? The Vltava Philharmonic Hall exhibition, which showcases the detailed architectural study of the future national concert hall in the Czech capital.

Beyond becoming the home of the world-class philharmonic orchestra, the Vltava Philharmonic Hall will serve as a public urban space. By raising and lowering the corners of the building at multiple touch points, a series of grand public plazas will become a new symbol of inclusionary architecture, welcoming a multitude of Prague’s vibrant urban life to flow across, around, through, under and over the new concert hall.

BIG Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels is featured on The Economist’s first ever Weekend Intelligence podcast episode, which focuses on outer space. Throughout the episode, The Economist’s Jessica Camille Aguirre contemplates living on the moon, interviewing – alongside Bjarke – NASA engineers, astronauts and 3D-printing construction company ICON’s Co-Founder and CEO Jason Ballard.

“Ingels and Ballard believe that exploration is a fundamental part of the human impulse – that it can explain history and how we built the societies we have,” remarks Aguirre in the episode. “To them, it’s also existential. They think that the future of humanity depends on continuing to find new frontiers, including physical frontiers off this planet.”

BIG Founder and Creative Director Bjarke Ingels was interviewed on Architectural Record’s DESIGN:ED podcast alongside Texas hotelier Liz Lambert. During the episode, they talk about the redevelopment of El Cosmico in Marfa, how their partnership with ICON is redefining construction and design through 3D-printing, and Bjarke’s hopes for designing on the moon.

“These [3D-printed] projects may be small in themselves, but there is the potential for an incredible impact on the future of affordable housing: to pioneer the future of construction with additive manufacturing, and maybe build the first permanent human habitat on the moon. What we are trying to do with Liz is to re-explore the repertoire that comes available with 3D printing. Complex and curvilinear geometries that would be hard to control with masons and blueprints suddenly become available in a completely different way.” – Bjarke Ingels, Founder and Creative Director, BIG

Architectural Record’s DESIGN:ED podcast is hosted by Austin, Texas–based architect Aaron Prinz, and provides an inside look into the field of architecture told from the perspective of individuals that are leading the industry.

BIG’s Landscape Partner Giulia Frittoli spoke at Utopian Hours, the international festival for urban innovation in Torino, Italy. Gathering urban planners, activists, and architects from all over the world, the Utopian Hours conference explored the topics of urban issues and innovation under this year’s theme “Manifesto for a New City Making”. Presenting BIG LEAPP, Giulia spoke of BIG’s integrated design approach and how we combine the efforts of our Landscape, Architecture, Engineering, Product design and Planning teams when giving form to the future of cities around the world.

BIG NYC Partner Daniel Sundlin joined a panel talk organized by Solar One to discuss the future of sustainability and resiliency at Scandinavia House in New York City. The thought-provoking conversation focused on the power of cutting-edge design to drive environmental sustainability and reshape the future of sustainable architecture. Daniel was joined by Kate Selden, solar policy analyst of Solar One; Jared Della Valle, CEO of Alloy Development; and Elijah Hutchinson, executive director of the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice.

Designed by BIG in collaboration with Silman Structural Engineers and Cosentini Associates, the upcoming Solar One Environmental Education Center in Stuyvesant Cove Park – within the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project – will be a home for environmental learning and innovation. The center 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.

Partner Catherine Huang spoke alongside AM Hub’s Programme Director Eleonora Orsetti at Scandinavia’s biggest conference for Additive Manufacturing in Copenhagen, AM Summit. The conference showcases the latest advancements, technologies, and solutions within the industry, and the two took the stage to speak about BIG and AM Hub’s research and development of I AM MSHRM.

Born out of a desire to innovate the construction industry, I AM MSHRM was developed with the purpose of finding new ways to reduce spatial and material waste through the application of additive manufacturing. The result is a rapidly deployable and easily assembled modular construction system, consisting of 3D-printed frame elements, made from plastic waste and locally sourced sugarcane and cornstarch, filled with mycelium.

Bjarke Ingels spoke as part of the keynote dialogue at the UIA World Congress of Architects in Copenhagen, which gathered 6.000 architects from around the world. Together with Margrethe Vesterager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission for a Europe fit for the Digital Age, the two discussed how businesses and institutions can contribute to shaping a more sustainable and equitable future in the built environment.

Climate ministers from around the world gathered at the Copenhagen Climate Ministerial, along with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and HRH Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark to pave the way for an ambitious COP28. Creative Director and Founder, Bjarke Ingels spoke to the esteemed audience about BIG’s Plan for The Planet – a masterplan for creating a sustainable, carbon-neutral world driven on renewable energy.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, BIG’s CEO and Partner, Sheela Sogaard, gave a keynote at their annual Global Women in Novo Nordisk event. Sheela shared her personal story on being a woman in leadership along with her perspective on how companies can drive change towards gender equality in the workspace and beyond.

Held at the Brooklyn Museum on July 25^th, the first Telosa Town Hall featured a panel discussion including Telosa Founder and ex-Walmart CEO, Marc Lore; former U.S. attorney, Preet Bharara; Diversity and Inclusion expert, Netta Jenkins; and BIG Associate and Telosa lead architect, Alana Goldweit. Moderated by journalist Nora Ali, 200 guests joined the event to learn more about Telosa’s progress, including how the team is aiming for 50,000 residents to be occupying the new city by 2030, and hints at where the new city might rise.