Architecture evolves from the collision of political, financial, functional, logistic, cultural, structural, environmental, social and many yet unnamed and unforeseeable interests. Bruce Mau once visited BIGs office and saw a series of projects including a study on Danish harbor activities. He was fascinated by the study and asked us to mail him the slides as he was leaving the next day. When he received it, he replied: No, no. I want the one you explained when we were there. We assured him it was the same one. He said Its interesting. In most cases when you see architects work, itss dead drawings and superficial images. But when you get a tour of the office or visit a building with the architect, you feel the energy and get all these little punch lines and invisible stories that make the whole work come to life! Too bad its so hard to capture in an exhibition, or even worse in a book!
A continuous public path stretches from street level to the penthouses and allows people to bike all the way from the ground floor to the top, moving alongside townhouses with gardens, winding through the urban perimeter block. Two sloping green roofs totaling , m are strategically placed to reduce the urban heat island effect as well as providing the visual identity to the project and tying it back to the adjacent farmlands towards the south.
The main loadbearing system of the building is based on V-shaped timber columns providing a structural function while also serving as a reference to both the iconic Swiss alpine landscapes and the centuries-old tradition of timber construction and traditional pitched roofs. Arriving passengers will be welcomed by this distinctly local architecture that showcases high-quality craftmanship while underscoring the airport’s pledge to sustainability.
Located in Copenhagen’s Nordhavn neighborhood, BIG’s new HQ building recently topped out its -storey structure. The new HQ is architecturally anchored in Copenhagen harbor’s heritage of warehouses and factories. The small footprint at the end of the pier became the main design dilemma: how to organize a single work environment for all of us when we would have to be split between a minimum of four levels. In a counterintuitive decision, we split all the floors in half and doubled the amount of levels.
The city of Uppsala invited BIG to design a biomass cogeneration plant to supplement Uppsalas existing energy infrastructure during the peak loads in the dark and cold fall, winter, and spring. With its beautiful old town, home to the oldest university in Scandinavia and the impressive Uppsala cathedral, it required careful consideration to integrate a vast structure into the historical skyline.