Archinect - News

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...

Construction tech developer ICON secures $35M in funding, BIG among investors

2020-08-20T14:02:00-04:00

ICON, developer of advanced construction technologies spanning from robotics, to software, and building materials, has completed a $35M series A funding round of financing led by Moderne Ventures. Among the series A round investors is Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).

"We believe additive manufacturing will play a transformative role in the future of construction and with our investment and partnership with ICON we can contribute actively to this ongoing transformation," said Bjarke Ingels, BIG's Founder and Creative Director in a statement. "The design industry has become revolutionized through the adoption of Computer Aided Design and Building Information Management...Robotic manufacturing will enable us to eliminate the loss in translation from data to matter and allow us to fabricate homes at great speed, with less waste, and with higher accuracy than today."

ICON. Six Home Project Community First Village. 3D-Print...

BIG designs green furniture factory in Norway

2020-07-14T13:53:00-04:00

The Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has unveiled designs for The Plus, a new furniture factory for Vestre, a Norwegian manufacturer of urban furniture. Located in the heart of the Norwegian forest, the 6,500-square-meter open production facility will double as a public 300-acre park for hiking and camping. It will also act as a landmark representing the region's mission to establish a green manufacturing industry.

All of the materials for the project were chosen based on their environmental impact. The facade will be constructed from local timber, low-carbon concrete, and recycled reinforced steel. Renewable and clean energy were key to the design principles employed in the development of the final product. The design team claims the facility will have 50% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than comparable factories.

"With Vestre we have imagined a factory that is simultaneously front of house and back of house. The beauty of the factory is the clarity of its organization," said Bjarke Ingels...

Controversial GSAPP lecture by Bjarke Ingels available online once again

2020-05-15T16:07:00-04:00

A much-anticipated lecture delivered by Bjarke Ingels at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) is now available for online viewing.

In the wide-ranging, nearly two-hour presentation, Ingels, founding partner at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), discusses a variety of the firm's most recent projects, including projects for NOMA restaurant in Copenhagen, a recent collaboration between BIG and Toyota, the controversial "Masterplanet" global master planning project, and even, Ingels's recent efforts to garner new work from Brazil's authoritarian regime.

Ingels's lecture is followed by a Q+A session with GSAPP Dean Amale Andraos and GSAPP students. The lecture, which took place January 27, 2020, was initially published to the GSAPP website but was subsequently taken down. It is now available once again on the school's website and on YouTube.

AIA names 116 architects to College of Fellows; Grants Bjarke Ingels honorary Fellow status

2020-02-26T15:08:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has elevated 116 architects to its prestigious College of Fellows.

The fellowship program, according to the AIA website, "was developed to elevate those architects who have achieved a standard of excellence in the profession and made a significant contribution to architecture and society on a national level."

In order to be eligible for fellowship, architects must be AIA members for at least 10 years while also demonstrating excellence in a number of arenas, including promoting the architectural profession, advancing the "the standards of architectural education, training or practice," coordinating the building industry and the profession of architecture "through leadership in the AIA or other related professional organizations," or by advancing the living standards of people "through an improved environment," according to the website.

In addition to the 116 Fellows, AIA has recognized five international architects with AIA Honorary Fello...

BIG's first couch is a kit of parts inspired by the video game Minecraft

2020-02-24T16:45:00-05:00

The Voxel consists of four core components: a seat, backrest/armrest, a pillow, and ottoman. The components can be configured in a number of ways, allowing users the freedom and flexibility to customize their optimum layout. According to Fast Company, BIG says the Voxel is inspired by everything from the game Minecraft to the modernism of Mies van der Rohe.

"Very often, architects are a little bit like curators of building components. We source door handles, lamps, window frames, heaters, and so forth. And so everything that goes into our buildings is something that another designer or engineer has done," said BIG partner Jakob Lange in a conversation with Fast Company's Mark Wilson. "The aim with BIG Ideas was to support the creation of the architecture, [when] sometimes we just simply couldn’t find the lamp or chair to fit our building."

Bjarke Ingels issues statement explaining meeting with Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro

2020-01-23T14:39:00-05:00

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels has released a statement explaining his reasoning behind the decision to meet with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro last week.

In the statement, Ingels, founder and creative partner at the multi-national architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), explains that his decision to meet with Brazilian officials was aimed at avoiding "oversimplification of a complex world" while also pushing for "active engagement, not superficial clickbait or ignorance" in terms of the work the firm undertakes. The meeting with Bolsonaro, Ingels explains, came as part of a larger research mission undertaken with the sustainable tourism developer Nomade Group aimed at investigating the possibility of bringing green tourism initiatives to the northeast coast of Brazil.

BIG's S.Pellegrino "Factory of the Future" is underway

2019-10-10T11:07:00-04:00

The construction for S.Pellegrino's Factory of the Future is underway. It began with a ceremony on September 27th as the "first stone was laid." At the ceremony, speeches and talks by the CEO of S.Pellegrino Sarzi Braga, Bjarke Ingels, and the Mayor of San Pellegrino Terme, Vittorio Millesi, according to a press release from the company.

Image courtesy of BIG

Back in 2017, BIG won the commission for the innovative factory after competing with three other international firms: MVRDV, Snøhetta, and Architetto Michele De Lucchi. "The main element for S.Pellegrino is the complete immersion into nature...this is like a new and very contemporary addition to the Brembo Valley, that also feels someway as if it has always been here," said the Bjarke Ingels about the project.

Image courtesy of BIG

The new building will include offices for staff, public spaces for the surrounding communities and tourists. In a previous article we wrote of the design's reinvention of elements of classic Italian ar...

Rowan Moore praises Bjarke Ingels as Rem Koolhaas "without the scent of intellectual and psychological complication"

2019-10-09T14:35:00-04:00

[Amager Bakke] is a work that revels in its own contrivance, a condensation and celebration of the surrounding artifice, a creation of what might be called hypernature. It is at once an energy facility, converting refuse into electricity, and a ski slope. It is arresting and striking. It’s an emblem of a culture of why-not and because-you-can that currently pops up in a number of modern cities [...]

Writing in The Guardian, architecture critic Rowan Moore heaps praise on Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and the firm's founder in a write-up of the firm's recently completed Amager Bakke project in Copenhagen.

Describing the architect's ability to impress clients, Moore writes, "He learned the power of shock from his former boss, Rem Koolhaas, without the scent of intellectual and psychological complication that major clients sometimes find off-putting about the latter. He presents himself as a seer, intoning about the future he means to shape, about the 'world-changing power of form-giving', but a cheeky one."

Archinect - News

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

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

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

BIG unveils a new sofa piece designed for Natuzzi Italia

BIG designs off-grid 'adventure village' Vollebak Island

University of Kansas appoints BIG to reimagine its school of architecture

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

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

BIG and Barcode complete cantilevering residential building on Amsterdam waterfront

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

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

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

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

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

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

BIG imagines a future for metal production on land and sea

BIG unveils infinity loop headquarters in Hangzhou, China

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

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

BIG selected to design new Hopkins Student Center

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

BIG unveils ambitious masterplan for Penang South Islands

Construction tech developer ICON secures $35M in funding, BIG among investors

BIG designs green furniture factory in Norway

Controversial GSAPP lecture by Bjarke Ingels available online once again

AIA names 116 architects to College of Fellows; Grants Bjarke Ingels honorary Fellow status

BIG's first couch is a kit of parts inspired by the video game Minecraft

Bjarke Ingels issues statement explaining meeting with Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro

BIG's S.Pellegrino "Factory of the Future" is underway

Rowan Moore praises Bjarke Ingels as Rem Koolhaas​ "without the scent of intellectual and psychological complication"

Rowan Moore praises Bjarke Ingels as Rem Koolhaas "without the scent of intellectual and psychological complication"