As BIG grows so does their ambition for engineering challenges. To help further facilitate their adventures in building design, the Copenhagen and New York-based studio have hired an in-house engineer, Duncan Horswill, the former CCO at Søren Jensen Engineers. BIG Engineering, as the unit will be called, with be “dedicated to ensuring the structural, mechanical integrity and resilience of BIG buildings globally. Already, the unit is working on projects around the world, from the new NOMA restaurant in Copenhagen to the Faroe Islands Education Centre. 

“At BIG we practice knowledge-driven design. We have been fortunate to work with some of the best urbanists, landscapers, sociologists, artists and engineers in the world, and will continue to do so. To be able to stretch the boundaries of the physical, financial, regulatory and environmental limits of design, we need to surround ourselves with the best experts in the fields outside our own expertise in architecture, and bring them in-house. As we started onboarding our own engineers, we have learned how much more impactful our design thinking can be when the expertise resides internally. Having engineers join our group of architects, product designers and landscape architects is the inevitable next step towards providing the silo-shattering interdisciplinary design innovation that we want to bring to the world,” states Bjarke Ingels, the founder of BIG.

BIG will still maintain relationships with longtime collaborators AKT, ARUP, DeSimone, Thornton Tomasetti, BuroHappold, Schlaich Bergermann Partner, Bollinger + Grohmann, Ramboll, MKA and others.