Smithsonian officials are planning a $2 billion futuristic reimagining of the institute’s southern campus that will create clear entrances, expand visitor services and upgrade mechanical systems to the historic Castle and the six buildings surrounding it.

Architect Bjarke Ingels, partner at BIG in Manhattan, unveiled the proposal Thursday in the Smithsonian Institution Building, known as the Castle. — washingtonpost.com

BIG is about to make its debut in the UK. The Architects' Journal reported that the Danish firm was selected in an international competition to design the public square in the £8 billion redevelopment of the historic Battersea Power Station, a decommissioned coal-fired power station in southwest London. A formal announcement is yet to be made. — bustler.net

A few years ago, the city of Copenhagen invited architects to submit their ideas for the design of an important new facility—a power plant that will use trash to generate electricity. [...] BIG, pitched a concept in which the plant took the form of a giant artificial ski slope. To Ingels’ surprise, it was selected as the winning submission. Now, it’s under construction, slated for completion in 2017.

The power plant was just one of the several projects Ingels shared at WIRED by Design [...]. — wired.com

City Hall on Thursday rejected the designs of the Kimball Art Center's expansion proposal, determining they do not meet the municipal government's strict Old Town guidelines.

It was a significant setback as the not-for-profit organization attempts to press ahead with an ambitious redo of the high-profile intersection of Main Street and Heber Avenue. [...]

The Kimball Art Center selected a renowned Danish architectural firm, Bjarke Ingels Group, to draft the designs. — parkrecord.com

This week the first six oversize Lego bricks were laid for the foundation of the Lego House in Billund, Denmark, the Lego Group’s hometown. Designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, the architecture of the Lego House is based on—what else but?—the iconic shape of the Lego brick. — slate.com

Bjarke Ingels’s ‘zootopia’ reverses the role of captor and captive to let animals roam free, while humans are hidden from view. But will it become a feral version of the Hunger Games? — theguardian.com

A life-size maze like the one BIG installed in partnership with the National Building Museum will attract plenty of attention, regardless if people know who BIG is or not. Constructed in the museum's iconic Great Hall, the maze was set up as an interactive sneakpeek for BIG's exhibition scheduled to open at the museum in January 2015. — bustler.net

The museum teamed up with international architecture firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group to construct a maze right in the Great Hall. [...]

The museum’s “ubergoal is that people walk out of here looking at their built world differently,” Frankel says. “We think this is sort of on the microlevel of that — forcing people to look up [as they navigate the maze] will make them look at our building differently.” — washingtonpost.com

Family-owned Swiss luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet have chosen BIG, HG Merz, Luchinger & Meyer, and Muller Illien as having the winning design for a new expansion of their headquarters in La Vallée de Joux, La Brassus, Switzerland. Adding quite the literal twist to the timeline concept, BIG's proposal -- titled Maison des Fondateurs -- dons a 25,000 ft. spiral-shaped museum that tells the centuries-long history of Audemars Piguet. — bustler.net

From yesterday's announcement of the Rebuild By Design winners by the U.S. Department of HUD, we've got more details behind "The BIG U" by the BIG Team, who had one of the six winning propoals. The BIG-led consortium was awarded $335 million to implement their proposal for New York's Lower Manhattan, with the goal to increase the neighborhood's resiliency to future storm disasters. And with a name like "The BIG U", one can only be curious to find out more. — bustler.net

This ice castle—or, ice bank fortress—is perhaps the most spectacular entrant in the 30th annual International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin. A sign hanging outside the sculpture suggests it’s intended to look like a branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the nation’s biggest bank. — qz.com