A new public promenade ties together the bay in east and leisure harbor in west. The meandering shape of the promenade defines a series of new public spaces on land and water weaving together the two and extending the new public realm into the water earlier reserved for industrial purposes. The promenade brings life to the area through a sports plaza, harbor bath, theater, restaurants, cafés, and beach huts which all together create a new vibrant waterfront in Aarhus.

Buenos Aires is a lively city with a vibrant social life, but to our surprise it only has m of public green space per person compared to the nine square meters recommended by WHO. This was something BIG&#;s design could address. As a result, the two blocks are transformed into five towers. Each tower is given a different height to eliminate the sensation of a wall. The podium is reduced into semi-sunken pavilions, turning their roofs into green slopes. The bases of each tower are eroded diminishing the footprint and allowing a public park to expand.

The development consists of two towers rising m to the north and m to the south, linked together at the feet by a m podium housing the main lobbies, a conference center, cafeteria, and exhibition space. The volume and height of the HQ was predetermined by the urban masterplan, leaving BIG with façade design. BIG envisioned an undulating façade &#; like the structure of a palm leaf or the folded screen of a lamp.

BIG-designed buildings were recreated in LEGO bricks by AFoL (Adult Fans of LEGO) master builders from all over the world. Each model was paired with the building’s three-dimensional digital information model that embodies all technical aspects of the project – from the functional layouts, structure and circulation to the mechanical services and materials – into a single digital twin of the built reality. With these two data points – the ‘low-res’ physical abstractions of the LEGO models and the ‘high-res’ digital specifications – visitors could see the complexity behind the playful simplicity.

The vegetation and landscape at the Panda House closely mimic the pandas’ natural habitat with patches of bamboo scattered throughout. The pandas must be able to find both shade and sun, as well as water and foliage. By creating two forests – a dense, mist forest and a light green bamboo forest, Mao Sun and Xing Er have the opportunity and flexibility to explore both landscapes, according to season, temperature and preference.