Bjarke Ingels of BIG, a Copenhagen based group of architects, designers, and thinkers operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research, and development, will present the firm’s recent and current work noted for its analysis, playful experimentation and humor, and social responsibility.

The firm describes its practice as “programmatic alchemy, mix[ing] conventional ingredients such as living, leisure, working, parking, and shopping into new forms of symbiotic architecture.” The firm’s projects seek to “free architectural imagination from habitual thinking and standard typologies in order to deal with the constantly evolving challenges of contemporary life.”

The Mountain, which was completed in 2008, counts as one of the first realized examples of this practice. BIG House, a 62,000 square meter mixed-use project in one continuous loop of public space, is expected to be completed in 2010. The 5,000 square meter Danish Maritime Museum uses and respects its UNESCO setting in Helsingør to create an invisible icon. BIG has also recently won the competition of representing Denmark at the 2010 World EXPO Exhibition in Shanghai and the competition for the World Village of Women’s Sport in Malmø, Sweden, for a 100,000 square meter sports facility.

Bjarke Ingels started his own office, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), in 2005 after having co-founded PLOT Architects in 2001 and collaborating with Rem Koolhaas at OMA.

In 2004 Ingels was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for the Stavanger Concert House, and the following year he received the Forum AID Award for the VM Houses. His latest completed project, The Mountain, has already received numerous awards, including the World Architecture Festival Housing Award, Forum AID Award, and the MIPIM Residential Development Award.

Alongside his architectural practice, Ingels has been active as a visiting professor at Rice University’s School of Architecture and, most recently, at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. He currently holds a guest lecturer position at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation, and Planning.

Moderated by Amale Andraos. Andraos is principal of WORK Architecture Company and currently teaches at Princeton University’s School of Architecture. She also serves on The Architectural League’s board of directors.

Support

This lecture is cosponsored by The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union. This program is made possible, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.