The Arizona landscape is quiet, hot, dry, and still. Monsoon rains and intense dust storms violently break the silence at exceptional yet ephemeral moments. The landscape is vast, open and flat, interrupted by rough edged mountains which become the points of reference in the horizon.

Like the monsoons, the dust storms and the mountains, the BIG Pin is also an exceptional moment, a point of reference and a mechanism to set the still landscape in motion – only this time through the movement of the spectator. Instead of referencing other observation towers, the Pin takes as a point of reference Frank Lloyd Wright’s celebrated Guggenheim Museum of New York. The visitor experiences the museum as a spiral motion looking inward. At the BIG Pin, the focus is reversed. Instead of a void, there is the dramatic landscape of Phoenix, Arizona.

The BIG Pin is designed for the warm, arid climate of the Arizonian desert. The concrete mass of the structure acts as energy storage; heat is absorbed during the day and slowly released during the night to offset the active cooling needs. The perimeter balconies provide the visitors with cooling shade and wide views, minimizing direct sunlight exposure, while also allowing for the clearest possible glass façades.

The sphere offers the most volume with the least amount of exterior surface, which reduces thermal exposure and heat gain.

Phoenix is an ideal place in the world for
harvesting solar energy. Planned to be built
right next to the Phoenix Convention Center,
BIG proposed to install a gigantic photovoltaic
facility on the convention center roof.

Placed like a black and white rasterized image, the PV Park, produces power, shades the convention center, and creates a gigantic sky-facing artwork for incoming airplanes, Google Earth, and the 800,000 annual visitors to the
BIG PIN.