Archinect - News

Bjarke Ingels talks Bhutan smart city development with CBS' '60 Minutes'

2024-11-18T14:09:00-05:00

"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 that still allows for prosperity and growth to happen."

The ever-popular Ingels sat down with Lesley Stahl to go over his team's vision for the project they first unveiled with Arup almost a year ago. The 386-square-mile master plan's design features many public buildings and other important infrastructure that double as bridges, unfolding in the shape of a Mandala flower, which hosts 11 neighborhood-scale developments rendered with increased density as they cascade in ribbons down to a low-lying southern terminus.

Bhutan, a nation of under 800,000 people, is struggling to retain skilled young professionals. A public bond campaign worth $100 million USD has just been launched for the project. According to the South China Morning Post and other outlets, the new 'Gelephu Mindfulness City' will be developed in phases over 21 years.

Bjarke Ingels reiterates interest in 3D printing lunar architecture

2024-11-15T18:15:00-05:00

Bjarke Ingels recently divulged his intentions to build on the moon by 2032. In a new interview with Fortune, Ingels talked about his firm’s involvement with ICON on the NASA-funded Project Olympus, saying "solar-powered lasers" will be used to "essentially melt moon dust into a sort of lunar obsidian" for later use as a 3D printed building material.

This is seemingly in reference to the next generation of 3D printers made by ICON, which Ingels discussed as part of our in-depth conversation on the topic in March. (He also said: "Technologies that are developed for the difficulty of building on the Moon and Mars actually end up necessitating innovations that are useful here on Earth.")

BIG is using a similar process for the astronaut base in the Mars Dune Alpha—another project partner Jakob Lange talked about with Archinect in detail in December of 2021.

Take a look inside BIG’s brand new concrete HQ office in Copenhagen

2024-10-28T14:04:00-04:00

Images of BIG’s newly opened waterfront headquarters in Copenhagen have been made public after the relocation was completed earlier this spring.

The office known for its familial atmosphere and daily team meals worked on the project collaboratively through its proprietary integrated LEAPP approach (short for internal Landscape, Engineering, Architecture, Planning, and Product Design).

Image copyright Laurian Ghinitoiu

BIG founder Bjarke Ingels shared: "The idea behind LEAPP is an architecture practice as a renaissance, interdisciplinary body of people and knowledge. [...] Every single aspect of LEAPP has been involved in our HQ, including the planning, the product design, the very complex stacking of the concrete elements."

Image copyright Laurian Ghinitoiu

Inside the Piranesian-inspired minimal concrete structure that's located at the tip of a pier in Nordhavn, a sole rotated totem pole-like column made from six types of stone supports a stacked pastiche of open and solid architectu...

BIG updates KING Toronto construction progress

2024-10-23T18:00:00-04:00

Here’s a brief construction update on the BIG-led new KING Toronto development with Diamond Schmitt Architects. The design pays homage to the definitive modularity of Moshe Safdie’s seminal Habitat 67, with 514 units rotated on a 45-degree angle and arranged as through a canyon overlooking the nightlife-centric King Street West corridor. Ingels says it will top out soon at 16 stories after beginning construction in mid-2020. This "experimental" addition will be the Danish firm’s third project for developer Westbank, following Vancouver House and the Telus Sky tower in Calgary.

Bjarke Ingels and Robert de Niro preview Wildflower Studios project in Queens

2024-09-26T11:11:00-04:00

“Cinema is probably the art form most similar to architecture,” [Ingels] says, in that both require “armies of people” to bring singular visions to life.

BIG’s 765,000-square-foot design is equipped with 11 sound stages is one of a pair the firm has designed in the New York area. De Niro is one of several celebrity clients to have worked with the mainstream media darling, including fellow Dane Lars von Trier.

Adam Gordon is the developer behind the Wildflower Studios project. He says: "Some of the most talented creative artists have been spending large parts of their career working in completely dehumanizing spaces. And I thought, 'van Gogh painted in Arles, right? Picasso lived in the South of France.' And that’s the spirit of the creative process [...] It’s having beautiful circumstances that make you feel like making art."

BIG's new adaptive reuse paper arts museum to unfold in northern Denmark

2024-09-24T18:56:00-04:00

A new museum dedicated to paper arts will launch in the North Jutland region of Denmark in the coming years with an adaptive reuse design from Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). The concept renderings for the reimagined new home of the six-year-old Museum for Paper Art were unveiled today along with an endorsement from its founder, the psaligrapher Bit Vejle.

Image courtesy BIG | Bjarke Ingels Group

The project converts a former supermarket building by extending its footprint to almost 25,000 square feet and adding a roof canopy resembling a single sheet of folded paper that sweeps down to cover glass-enclosed public areas lining the perimeter.

Image courtesy BIG | Bjarke Ingels Group

Paper and its source combine to drape the structure's interior surfaces and Ingels’ team has said the exterior of the market building also will be covered by a new acoustics-regulating origami-inspired paper art commissioned from local Danish artists in deference to the medium’s importance to the history of the ...

BIG updates status of one of EU’s largest mass timber projects in Luxembourg

2024-09-03T17:48:00-04:00

BIG has provided an update on its Skypark Business Center at the Luxembourg Airport in Luxembourg. What will be one of Europe’s largest hybrid mass timber designs is now almost fully enclosed and stands as the first completed structure included in the Airport City grounds expansion. Metaform Architects is collaborating with BIG locally on the project, which was won after a 2018 international competition. Construction will yield approximately 840,000 square feet for offices and other commercial activities.

Bjarke Ingels recently spoke with our Niall Patrick Walsh in an interview about their noteworthy 3D printing innovations.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kai-Uwe Bergmann (@kaiuwebergmann)

BIG's NOT A HOTEL Setouchi weds Danish and Japanese design

2024-05-17T12:59:00-04:00

BIG has designed a new remote hotel concept on Sagi Island, Japan, for the NOT A HOTEL brand, its sixth property overall. The new Setouchi project follows other hospitality designs from the firm, including the new Hôtel des Horlogers in Switzerland and Vollebak Island in Canada.

Rendering: MIR

Rendering: LIT design

A ribbon-like footpath stitches together the mossy archipelago’s natural landscape with the residential portion of the design. Three villas (‘360,’ ‘270,’ and ‘180’) form a sequence staggered at different elevations on the approximately 323,000-square-foot site overlooking the southwestern cape of Sagi Island. Each features its own unique characteristics and corresponding panoramic views of the sea and inner harbor area, with accommodations that vary between three and four bedrooms.

Rendering: MIR

BIG’s founder, Bjarke Ingels, says: "Our design approach for NOT A HOTEL Setouchi wasn’t about imposing our ideas on the site; instead, it...

BIG unveils design for new Freedom Plaza development along Manhattan's East River

2024-02-12T19:35:00-05:00

Plans for a four-tower scheme designed by BIG for the east side of Manhattan have been announced by developers Soloviev Group and Mohegan in advance of its commencement in Midtown.

Their transformative Freedom Plaza project will be realized on a 6.7-acre plot near the United Nations complex overlooking the FDR Drive and East River between 38th and 41st Street at First Avenue.

Rendering by Negativ

The program calls for two pairs of hotel and condominium towers connected via a skybridge, and addressing the Queens shoreline with a landscaped park and small Museum of Freedom and Democracy forming in the ground-level plaza underneath. A total of 4.77 acres of publicly accessible space will be included therein, flanked by the 1,325-unit residential component to the southern orientation. Nearly half (40%) will be dedicated to affordable housing, according to the project announcement.

Rendering by Negativ

A casino space tied to the developer's bid for one of three available gambling license...

BIG's ‘Mindfulness City’ concept seeks to deliver new forms of prosperity to southern Bhutan

2023-12-20T20:00:00-05:00

Details of a new master plan from Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) for Bhutan’s future Gelephu Special Administration Region have been made public this week in the South Asian country.

‘Mindfulness City’ is a multifaceted economic hub designed by the firm’s Landscape and Urban Design Team to coincide with sustainability principles and the pioneering Gross National Happiness Index (GNH) concept that has been championed by King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and the Bhutanese government since 2008.

Rendering: Brick Visual

The 1,000-square-kilometer (386-square-mile) plan calls for the construction of a new international airport, hydroelectric dam, railway infrastructure, and university campus near the southern border with India. Ribbons of neighborhood-scale developments will run like tendrils influenced by the confluence of 35 different rivers and streams that pulse through the site, with densities increasing along the gradient from its northern rural highlands to mor...

BIG designs stepped concave towers for ‘Europe’s largest regeneration project’ in Greece

2023-10-18T12:15:00-04:00

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has designed a major residential complex in Athens, Greece. Named Park Rise and commissioned for LAMDA Development, BIG’s scheme is part of The Ellinikon, described by LAMDA as “Europe’s largest urban regeneration project and a smart city being built from the ground up in Athens.”

Image credit: Bjarke Ingels Group / LAMDA

Park Rise will form the centerpiece of Little Athens, a new residential neighborhood located within the Ellinikon master plan. BIG’s concept will contain 88 residential units across five building cores: two rising to five floors, two rising to eight floors, and one rising to 12 floors.

Image credit: Bjarke Ingels Group / LAMDA

From the outside, the scheme is defined by a curved concave facade which, the architects say, “creatively reimagines the classic Greek column while adding a soft geometry to the aesthetic.” Off-white glass-reinforced concrete with exposed aggregates is integrated into the facade to “harken to the natural landscape.”

I...

BIG unveils a new sofa piece designed for Natuzzi Italia

2023-10-04T12:45:00-04:00

Furniture brand Natuzzi Italia has unveiled a sofa designed by Bjarke Ingels Group. The Colle Sofa, available online, draws inspiration from Natuzzi Italia’s early iconic designs, “known for their inviting, hospitable style that captures the essence of Mediterranean living,” as the company describes it.

Image credit: Natuzzi Italia

The piece is part of the wider Natuzzi Italia project titled ‘The Circle of Harmony,’ which has included a collaboration with dozens of renowned architects, artists, and designers over the past four years. Described by the company as “a physical and mental place that welcomes the most intimate and social moments by hosting quality time with ourselves and others,” the Colle Sofa features a wide selection of fabric and leather coverings.

Image credit: Natuzzi Italia

“Rooted in Natuzzi Italia's core values — Mediterranean flair, design, harmony, Italian character, innovation, comfort, and sustainability — the 2023 iteration of this philosophy, featuring the Co...

BIG designs off-grid 'adventure village' Vollebak Island

2023-06-01T14:29:00-04:00

BIG has shared details about their latest collaboration with British clothing company Vollebak to design a self-sufficient, off-grid island off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. Named after the brand, the 11-acre Vollebak Island is intended to be fully powered by carbon-neutral energy.

The island site centers around the 6,426-square-foot Earth House, a village-like series of nine interconnected buildings clustered under a man-made hill, and the 947-square-foot Wood House, a standalone garden suite structure on the island’s eastern shoreline.

View of Vollebak Island's Earth House. Rendering: MIR. Image courtesy Vollebak

Each space on the island is made from material tailored for their specific uses, including stacked seaweed, compacted earth, hemp, glass brick, and locally-sourced stone. The island will be powered through a combination of offshore wind, geothermal energy, and solar power, with the energy stored in Tesla power walls.

The Earth House. Rendering: MIR. Image courtesy Vo...

University of Kansas appoints BIG to reimagine its school of architecture

2023-03-10T10:44:00-05:00

The University of Kansas’ School of Architecture and Design has appointed Bjarke Ingels Group to design a new multidisciplinary design school. BIG’s commission, which includes space planning, programming, and concept design, seeks to establish a “redesigned home for the school that respects the established character of the site while also being optimized for innovative teaching and research.”

The school’s expansion follows a decade of increasing enrolment numbers and an expanded program offering. While details of BIG’s proposal have not yet been announced, the school suggests that BIG’s plan will involve an engagement with the school’s existing facilities on Jayhawk Boulevard.

"For an architect, each project is kicked off with a crash course seeking to educate ourselves in an entirely new field, because we rarely design for other ar...

Presales commence on Bjarke Ingels' new Nabr development in San Jose

2022-09-27T14:27:00-04:00

Nearly a year after its initial unveiling, Nabr, the housing startup co-founded by Bjarke Ingels, has announced the beginning of presales for the first site in its BIG-designed development in downtown San Jose.

Featuring updated designs for its three-tower block, the firm is promoting the Silicon Valley initiative as a “people-first housing company.” Prospective residents will have the opportunity to purchase a home through either a traditional mortgage servicer or via the Leap lease-to-own alternative.

Ingels has said repeatedly since Nabr's initial announcement that the venture is an attempt to mitigate the barriers to homeownership in America, an issue which has disproportionately affected young people and student loan borrowers, while pushing the broader architectural community to explore new approaches to the concept of housing overall.

Image courtesy Nabr

Prices for a place in SoFA One, the first tower in Nabr's San Jose ensemble to come online, start around $700,000. The firm ...

WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann is getting into the housing market with a new startup

2022-08-16T18:49:00-04:00

WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann is once again making waves with the announcement of a new startup called Flow that’s being funded by early Airbnb investors Andreessen Horowitz and is promoting itself as a real estate startup that aims to revolutionize the residential housing industry.

The $350 million deal is said to be the largest in the Silicon Valley fund’s 13-year history and brings Flow’s initial evaluation to exactly $1 billion, a pittance when compared to the $47 billion figure WeWork received in 2019 thanks to SoftBank. The company’s operation will officially begin next year, according to the New York Times’ DealBook page, which first reported the news late Monday.

“We love seeing repeat-founders build on past successes by growing from lessons learned," Marc Andreessen stated, referring to Neumann's well-documented past. “The successes and lessons are plenty.”

Neumann has repo...

BIG and Barcode complete cantilevering residential building on Amsterdam waterfront

2022-07-15T11:39:00-04:00

Work has been completed on Sluishuis, a residential project in Amsterdam by Bjarke Ingels Group and Barcode Architects. The scheme, which comprises 442 homes, a public green roof garden, and maritime jetties, is defined by a cantilevered form meeting at a high corner.

Photograph © Ossip van Duivenbode

The architects describe the project as a “remarkable building with a unique volume that seems to float on the water thanks to the double cantilever.” Towards the water, the building’s untreated aluminum facade rises to meet at the cantilever, creating a gateway to the inner harbor at the building’s core. On the opposite side, the stepped form contains a stairway to the rooftop garden and private residential terraces.

Photograph © Ossip van Duivenbode

The 442 energy-neutral homes, which vary between owner-occupied and rental units, are designed for a variety of income levels and age categories. Typologies include compact studios, water sports apartments, and duplex penthouses. The steppe...

Updated design emerges for BIG’s floating city in Busan, South Korea for OCEANIX

2022-04-27T11:06:00-04:00

Further details have been revealed for the design of OCEANIX Busan, described as the “world’s first sustainable floating city.” Designed by lead architects BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) and SAMOO (Samsung), the project will be constructed in the South Korean city of Busan by advanced maritime company OCEANIX in collaboration with UN-Habitat.

Potential scaled-up version of the scheme. Image by OCEANIX / Bjarke Ingels Group

We first covered the project in 2019, when BIG unveiled the project as a utopian plan for floating cities, sparking extensive debate among our community. Late last year, it emerged that the city of Busan would take the lead on realizing the project. Now, new renderings of the scheme offer further insight into how the original utopian plan may manifest.

Initial phase of OCEANIX Busan, accommodating 12,000 people. Image by OCEANIX / Bjarke Ingels Group

The current proposal would see interconnected platforms create a 15.5-acre city capable of accommodating 12,000 people. T...

BIG designs $600M film studio with Robert De Niro in Queens, New York

2022-02-15T12:24:00-05:00

Bjarke Ingels Group’s Wildflower Studios has been given the green light for construction in Queens, New York. Designed for the Robert De Niro-led Wildflower Development Group, the new seven-story building will contain a vertical commercial film, television, and creative studio.

Located in Astoria, Queens adjacent to the manufacturing warehouse of the highly-prized Steinway Pianos, the 775,000-square-foot complex will contain 11 main stages, supported by production areas, open and private offices, a fitness room, cafes, and lounges. Externally, the five-acre former industrial plot will contain 310 off-street parking spaces and a waterfront public realm.

Image credit: SYNOSIS

The stages within the building measure 18,000 square feet, with dimensions 150 feet long, 120 feet wide, and 60 feet high. Due to the site’s limited area but generous height allowances, the internal program has been arranged as a vertical film studio with two levels of sound stages, which the team believes to ...

A first look at Nabr, Bjarke Ingels’ disruptor housing company

2021-12-14T11:55:00-05:00

Nabr has offered the first clues of what their homes of the future may look like. The “people-first housing company” was co-founded by Bjarke Ingels with the ambition of “putting more people on a path to owning a high-quality, environmentally friendly home in the city.”

Nabr’s first building is set to be launched at 415 South 3rd Street, San Jose, California in 2023. Designed in collaboration with Bjarke Ingels Group, and named SoFA One, the project will consist of more than 100 homes personalized by each owner. Prices are expected to start in the high $700Ks, with interested parties able to join a waitlist for the homes from 2022.

Image by The Boundary for Nabr

The waitlist for Nabr Homes will be open to everyone, with applicants able to fill out specific details on the units they are seeking. When the service matches the applicant’s preferences to an available unit in their area, the applicant will be invited to Nabr’s Design Studio to select and customize the home, including l...

Busan to take the lead in trying on Bjarke Ingels' floating OCEANIX CITY prototype in 2025

2021-11-30T09:00:00-05:00

In an effort to mitigate the impending effects of sea-level rise on coastal populations through architecture, UN-Habitat and OCEANIX are once again taking the lead with a new prototype for a floating settlement in the South Korean city of Busan.

The buzzworthy pair had previously made waves with a Bjarke Ingels-backed 2019 proposal for a floodproof habitat which has now officially found a home thanks to a groundbreaking agreement with the city’s government.

Now, with almost 50 centimeters of sea-level rise expected for the southern peninsula by mid-century, leaders in South Korea look to the prototype as a guide to extreme adaptation efforts that could help circumvent the challenges caused by an influx of coastal city dwellers overrunning a country of 52 million whose total land area is roughly equivalent to the state of Indiana.

Previously on Archinect: Bjarke Ingels presents utopian plan for sustainable floating cities to UN

The city proposal claims to be designed to withstand a...

Wealth is cemented at the top as starchitects continue to see gains

2021-11-22T14:32:00-05:00

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, a new list from therichest.com has ranked the world’s top ten architects in terms of their total net worth.

Big A architecture remunerates extraordinarily well for some, with the total list’s net worth nearing three-quarters of a billion USD.

Norman Foster took the top spot with an estimated net worth amounting to $250 million. The outspoken 86-year-old has had a windfall of big development contracts in the past few years, which has helped him maintain the position he has held for parts of the last two decades.

Frank Gehry came in a distant second with around $100 million in total worth. Gehry was followed quickly by Moshe Safdie, who also hit the $100 mark, although it was not clear which methodology was used to delineate the two (some publicized estimates have Safdie’s worth significantly higher at around $150 million). Oculus designer Santiago Calatrava was the only other architect to hit the nine-figure plateau. His estimated net ...

WeWork plans a post-Covid return, hiring more architects while shifting efforts south

2021-06-03T14:50:00-04:00

Before the Covid-19 pandemic forced most office workers to indefinitely take their work home, the New York-based WeWork had a dramatic rise and fall. With a widely-reported, botched IPO in 2019, the office space company’s ascent was emblematic of an unprecedented alliance between data, finance, real estate, and architecture. This volatile blend of ambition earned it the notorious reputation as a multibillion-dollar “unicorn” and a Hulu special documenting its “shamanic” leader, Adam Neuman. Overvalued at $47 billion, investors pulled out in 2019, and the company’s rapid decline was compounded by white-collar workers’ widespread adoption of ad-hoc home offices.

Now, as people are increasingly—though unequally—vaccinated in the US, they are venturing out again. First to restaurants and bars, though the office may be next. WeWork is trying to lure them back to their desks.

Listen to our 2018 conversation with WeWork co-founder, Miguel McKelvey: From an All-Women-Led Collective to a M...

BIG imagines a future for metal production on land and sea

2021-05-18T12:18:00-04:00

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has unveiled their design for the future of metal production, combining land and sea-based elements. Collaborating with The Metals Company, a developer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor rocks, BIG sought to bring innovative, sustainable, whole-system design processes to critical battery metals. The resulting suite of BIG’s designs includes seafloor mineral collector robots, carbon-neutral vessels, and waste-free metals processing and recycling plants to enable a circular supply chain.

Aerial of system. Image: Bjarke Ingels Group

The Metals Company’s production process centers on polymetallic nodules — fist-sized rocks containing battery-grade nickel, cobalt, copper, and manganese found on the ocean floor. BIG’s brief called for an integrated suite of assets that work together to lift nodules off the seafloor and up to a purpose-built production vessel, before transferring them to a hydrodynamic shuttle carrier, and onward to a land-based plant. Th...

BIG unveils infinity loop headquarters in Hangzhou, China

2021-04-20T10:53:00-04:00

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has unveiled their design for the new R+D headquarters of OPPO, the largest smartphone manufacturer in China. Named the O-Tower, the scheme seeks to reflect the company’s ethos of “endless innovation in the pursuit of perfection” and serve as an iconic gateway to Hangzhou’s Future Sci-Tech City.

The O-Tower. Image: IMIGO and BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group

Colloquially known as “Heaven on Earth”, the city of Hangzhou has a dual identity as both a hub for innovation, and a center of rich cultural and natural history, hosting three of the world’s 57 UNESCO Heritage sites. The O-Tower sits at an intersection of these two conditions, flanked by a natural lake, a 10,000 square-meter park, and a high-rise urban center.

The O-Tower. Image: BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group

The scheme’s signature massing is shaped in response to the unique needs of contemporary tech companies. While deep, flexible floorplates are desirable by tech companies for accommodating more creative, var...

Toyota and BIG's 'Woven City' project breaks ground in Japan

2021-03-01T14:16:00-05:00

Early in 2020, Archinect reported on Toyota and BIG's collaborative project "Woven City." The 175-acre project aims to turn the former factory site located in the city of Susono in Shizuoka, Japan into a "revolutionary smart city." On February 24, 2021, Toyota announced that the "futuristic city" has broken ground and construction is underway.

Image of project site with iconic Mt. Fuji in the background. courtesy of Woven City Facebook page.

During the Woven City groundbreaking ceremony, Toyota President Aiko Toyoda shared, "The Woven City project officially starts today. Taking action as one has decided is never an easy task. I must express my deepest gratitude to all who have provided their whole-hearted support and cooperation to the project through today. The unwavering themes of the Woven City are 'human-centered,' 'a living laboratory' and 'ever-evolving.' Together with the support of our project partners, we will take on the challenge of creating a future where people of dive...

Virgin Hyperloop: first human passenger test in BIG-designed XP-2 pod

2020-11-09T14:52:00-05:00

While Nevada's slow election vote counting has inspired countless memes over the weekend, a new speed milestone was reached in the state when humans successfully traveled in a hyperloop pod for the first time.

Promotional video of the first hyperloop passenger test. Video via Virgin Hyperloop on YouTube.

After running over 400 unoccupied tests at its 500-meter DevLoop test site in Las Vegas, Virgin Hyperloop now catapulted the company's Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Josh Giegel, and Director of Passenger Experience, Sara Luchian, for a thrilling ride through the very short test tunnel.

Image: Virgin Hyperloop.

"The occupants made their maiden voyage on the newly-unveiled XP-2
vehicle, designed by BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group and Kilo Design, which was custom-built with occupant safety and comfort in mind," explains a statement released by Virgin Hyperloop. Back in 2016, BIG had announced a joint venture with Aecom and Hyperloop to "transform the future of public infrastruct...

BIG selected to design new Hopkins Student Center

2020-11-05T13:46:00-05:00

It appears to be a big week for student center design announcements: after Rice University revealed its pick of Adjaye Associates to replace the Rice Memorial Center in Houston with a three-story structure, now Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University presented renderings for the new Hopkins Student Center, designed by BIG.

Image by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

Dubbed "The Village," the proposal was chosen as the winner of an international design competition led by a special advisory committee which took into consideration more than 1,200 student, faculty, staff, and alumni responses to the four finalist design proposals.

BIG's competition team also includes Shepley Bulfinch as Architect of Record, Rockwell Group as Interior Architects, and Michael Van Valkenburg Associates as Landscape Architects.

Image by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

"The approximately 150,000-square-foot building will include spaces for relaxation and socialization, creative and performing arts spaces, student resources and sup...

ICON teams up with BIG and SEArch+ for Project Olympus, an off-world construction system for the Moon

2020-10-28T17:44:00-04:00

Icon, an Austin, Texas-based developer of construction technologies, received funding to research and develop a space-based construction system that could support future exploration of the moon. It has engaged two architecture firms as partners for the project: Denmark-based BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and New York City-based SEArch+.

BIG unveils ambitious masterplan for Penang South Islands

2020-08-24T13:37:00-04:00

BIG, Hijjas, and Ramboll have been selected as the winners of the Penang State Government's international competition to design a masterplan for the Penang South Islands, which will provide locals with roughly 4.6 kilometers of public beaches, 600 acres of parks and 25 kilometers of waterfront. Called "BiodiverCity," the design team's masterplan supports the Penang 2030 vision, focusing on livability, social and economic inclusive development, and environmental sustainability.

The project will span three islands to bring together a series of mixed-use districts of 15,000 to 18,000 residents across 50 to 500 acres, with an emphasis on the symbiotic relationship between reserves, parks, corridors and urban plazas.

Of the project, BIG founder Bjarke Ingels said in a statement: "If Penang is defined by its rich cultural diversity and its abundant biodiversity, we would like to envision the Penang South islands as an archipelago where the two can coexist in a human-made ecosystem, expa...