FORMGIVING

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

2018

CLIENT

Danish Architecture Center

TYPOLOGY

Culture

STATUS

COMPLETED

FORMGIVING – An Architectural Future History from Big Bang to Singularity explores how the world around us has taken shape – and has been given shape – from the past to the present, with different BIG projects as glimpses of and gifts to our future.

The 1,350 m2 solo exhibition began with the Big Bang, the oldest known point in time and traversed the stairway of Danish Architecture Center’s BLOX building to lead visitors into the main gallery dedicated to the present: projects that populate the drawing boards, model workshops and databases across BIG’s studios worldwide, providing hints of the future.

At the core of BLOX, the main gallery hosted 71 projects grouped according to the Gifts they each give to their users, neighborhood, city, landscape and environment in the form of 10 strategies: Adapt, Show, Respond, Marry, Host, Lift, Bond, Productize, Grow and Pool.

“The Danish word for ‘design’ is ‘formgivning’ – which literally means, to give form to that which has not yet been given form. In other words: to give form to the future. And more specifically: to give form to the world that we would like to find ourselves living in – in the future. To create the sense of how the world around us has taken shape – and has been given form – from the past to the present – we have transformed the stairs of the Danish Architecture Center into a timeline counting down from the Big Bang to the present. Our projects provide glimpses of specific fragments of our future five, ten, and fifty years into the future. Rather than attempting to predict the future, we have the power to propose our future.”

Bjarke Ingels — Founder & Creative Director, BIG

“The urban development of the future needs architects who can walk unexpected paths. Bjarke Ingels turns huge, global challenges into limitless possibilities. He is a Danish world phenomenon who mobilizes sustainable urban development with spirit, creativity and imagination. BIG shows us that architecture can be unpretentious and down to earth. Realdania is delighted to support this exhibition, which demonstrates through play and learning that architecture creates the framework for our lives and therefore has an impact on us all.”

Jesper Nygård — CEO, Realdania

The “Golden Gallery” dedicated to LEGO allowed children and adults to imagine, co-create and co-habit the world they want to live and play in.

25 BIG-designed buildings were recreated in LEGO bricks by AFoL (Adult Fans of LEGO) master builders from all over the world. Each model was paired with the building’s three-dimensional digital information model that embodies all technical aspects of the project – from the functional layouts, structure and circulation to the mechanical services and materials – into a single digital twin of the built reality. With these two data points – the ‘low-res’ physical abstractions of the LEGO models and the ‘high-res’ digital specifications – visitors could see the complexity behind the playful simplicity.

25 BIG-designed buildings were recreated in LEGO bricks by AFoL (Adult Fans of LEGO) master builders from all over the world.

The timeline continued as visitors descended the stairs from the present to the Singularity: the furthest hypothetical point in time predicted by futurist Ray Kurzweil. Each stair landing expanded on the future of Thinking (emergence of artificial and collective intelligence); Sensing (virtual and augmented reality); Making (manual construction to robotic manufacturing); and Moving (Interplanetary migration).

A catalogue exploring the notion of Formgiving was published by Taschen in 2020, marking the third collaboration between BIG and the publisher.

Bjarke Ingels Kai-Uwe Bergmann Jakob Lange Brian Yang Andreas Klok Pedersen Jakob Sand Catherine Huang Adam Poole Jan Leenknegt Marius Tromholt-Richter Peter Sepassi Elnaz Rafati Jesslyn Guntur Bernardo Schuhmacher Ada Gulyamdzhis Agnieszka Majkowska Alexander Jacobson Amanda Lima Soares Da Cunha Ana-Maria Vindfeldt Anders Holden Deleuran Andre Enrico Cassettari Zanolla Andy Coward Andrea Angelo Suardi Artemis Antonopoulou Carmelo Gagliano Cæcilie Søs Brandt-Olsen Daria Pahhota Davide Pellegrini Dimitrie Grigorescu Dominiq Nana Osei Kwabena Oti Duncan Horswill Eduardo Javier Sosa Trevino Edward Connor Burnett Ella Coco Murphy Francisca Christina Marga Hamilton Gabrielle Nadeau Geetika Bhutani Giovanni Simioni Ipek Akin Irie Meree Izabella Banas James Caruso Jaemin Seo Jagoda Helena Lintowska James Donaldson Jens Majdal Kaarsholm Jiyoon Lee Karolina Olga Krzyżanowska Kongphob Amornpatarasin Kristoffer Negendahl Mads Primdahl Rokkjær Mai Lee Mantas Povilaika Marija Lukoseviciute Mathis Paul Gebauer Matteo Pavanello Mattia Di Carlo Mauro Saenz de Cabezon Aguado Nicholas Flutter Nikolaos Romanos Tsokas Ombretta Colangelo Palita Tungjaroen Paula Madrid Pernille Kinch Andersen Qamelliah Yusuph Nassir Ricardo Diogo Chamacho Vieira De Oliveira Robert Siegfried Bichlmaier Rron Bexheti Scott Sung Joon Moon Tiffany Wong Tobias Hjortdal Tore Banke Victor Moegreen Walid Bhatt Søren Dam Mortensen Charlotte Chan Cheng-Huang Lin January Chen Norain Chang

COLLABORATORS

Jeffrey Inaba
Adam and Rebekah Neumann
Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy
Aaron Koblin
Chris Milk
Douglas Coupland
David Eagleman
Jeppe Hein
Scott Dadich
Andrew Zuckermann
Michael Rojkind
Didier Lootens
Solène Wolff
Jan Bunge
TED
Mangoshake Studio
BIG Lego Builders: Anders Thuesen Anders Horvath Anne Mette Vestergaard Are Heiseldal Elisabeth Horte Emil Lidé Esben Kolind Glenn Knoesgaard Helgi Toftegaard Jan Smed Jessica Farrell Lars Barstad Lasse Vestergaard René Askham Rocco Buttliere Trine Dalsgaard Jensen Zio Chao Tormod Askildsen Tanja Friberg