With a play on Mies van der Rohe’s famous quote, “Less is More,” BIG laid out a positive approach urging optimism in the studio’s first major solo exhibition and monograph titled YES IS MORE at the Danish Architecture Center (DAC).

The exhibition was conceived as a three dimensional comic book about architecture. Told in a linear way, frame by frame, bubble by bubble, chapter by chapter the exhibition unfolded through a 118 m cartoon strip showcasing 34 projects.

The accompanying catalogue is likewise a manga-inspired archicomic that reveals through candor and humor the evolutionary storyline of BIG’s projects.

The YES IS MORE exhibit displayed 34 projects, including 30 models. The exhibition materials were kept simple: MDF, black paint, 400 light tubes, 19 screens, 45 acrylic plates.

The public was invited to embark on a journey of discovery of BIG’s creative process, following the studio’s ideas from the drawing board to the finished building. Models of Danish and international projects form a complimentary part to the exhibition, lit up like a city at night.

Architecture evolves from the collision of political, financial, functional, logistic, cultural, structural, environmental, social and many yet unnamed and unforeseeable interests. Bruce Mau once visited BIG’s office and saw a  series of projects including a study on Danish harbor activities. He was fascinated by the study and asked us to mail him the slides as he was leaving the next day. When he received it, he replied: “No, no. I want the one you explained when we were there.” We assured him it was the same one. He said “It’s interesting. In most cases when you see architects work, its’s dead drawings and superficial images. But when you get a tour of the office or visit a building with the architect, you feel the energy and get all these little punch lines and invisible stories that make the whole work come to life! Too bad it’s so hard to capture in an exhibition, or even worse in a book!”

Architecture is never triggered by a single event, never conceived by a single mind, and never shaped by a single hand. Neither is it the direct materialization of a personal or pure ideals, but rather the result of an ongoing adaptation to the multiple conflicting forces flowing through society. We architects don’t control the city – we can only aspire to intervene.

YES IS MORE is the first monograph devoted exclusively to the architectural work of BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group. Unlike a classic architectural monograph, this archicomic is more of a manifesto of popular culture. BIG’s inspiration for this approach was the graphic novels by Frank Miller like Sin City and the Manga comics of the Japanese animators.

YES IS MORE has since been exhibited in 10+ locations and sold more than 150,000 copies worldwide. The book is currently available on Amazon.