Beneath the slopes, whirring furnaces, steam, and turbines convert , tons of waste annually into enough clean energy to deliver electricity and district heating for , homes. The power plant&#;s infrastructure, from ventilation shafts to air-intakes, helps create the varied topography of a mountain; a man-made landscape created in the encounter between the needs from below and the desires from above.

The striated volume appears like a rippled seashell made from parallel walls facing east and west to block the low incoming sunrays, while opening up toward the Marina and the private garden. The undulating roof is made from tilted slabs ensuring that there are no parallel surfaces between floor and ceiling. The resultant elevation appears like parallel columns of light like the digital display of an equalizer.

From the street, the urban façade encloses the parking. Since the parking is outdoor and naturally ventilated, the façade is perforated to let it “breathe.” By perforating the traditional aluminum plates in six different sizes, the façade creates a rasterized image of Mount Everest. What appears at close to be a pattern of transparency and opacity becomes a crystal clear image at a distance. Façade as artwork.

Located in the visual axis of the Notre Dame Cathedral in a dense context of university buildings from different historical periods,  BIG proposes a building geometry that adapts to the specific conditions of all adjoining sides, optimized for daylight, views and accessibility. The three-dimensional envelope retracts from the neighboring facades, opens up towards the square of Institut du Monde Arabe and the park, and folds into a publicly accessible rooftop landscape, resulting in an adapted sculptural building volume.

The Gammel Hellerup School just north of Copenhagen is a well-preserved piece of architecture and a good example of building on a human scale. BIG was asked to design two new buildings, a new multi-purpose hall and a new arts building for the growing school. The challenge was to develop a masterplan and architectural design for new buildings that met the school’s changing needs while still respecting the traditional architecture.