At street level the floors are shifted backwards and forwards to create green terraces and canopies facing the park. In the middle of the silhouette, where the tower turns residential, the floor plates slide out in a spiraling movement, creating terraces and outdoor space for residents. In its upper section the tower returns to a simple stack of optimized floor plates, completing its twist to rejoin the orientation of the floors below. These inhabitable movements bring human scale from street level into the skyline, embodying the unique character of Frankfurt.

Capital is a flexible, foldable pair of headphones, designed to provide on-the-go urbanites with the opportunity to listen to their preferred sounds. Users can soundtrack their day in any kind of weather and at all times, while wearing a design that’s effortlessly iconic, thoroughly realized and comfortable. Made out of fiber-reinforced nylon with a lightweight rubber brace, this is a headphone built to withstand heavy everyday use in urban environments. It’s tested to withstand rain, snow and dirt, while delivering clear and crisp sound from the protected mm driver.

In the design concept for Ellsinore Psychiatric Clinic BIG steered clear of all clinical stereotypes: the traditional hospital hallway without windows and rooms on both sides; artificial easy-cleaning materials like plastic paint, linoleum floors or ceilings made of gypsum, etc. Instead, all materials have their natural surfaces. Cast floors in concrete or lively colors and walls made of glass, wood and concrete. Functionally the hospital is tailor-made to modern psychiatric treatment and therapy. Experientially the hospital appears as anything but a hospital.

The site is bound by four key traffic corridors, the character of which informs the public space programming around the Philharmonic. Along the Western side, Bubenská passes the site and continues across the Vltava on the Hlávkův Bridge. Here, several modes of mobility are accommodated within the public realm. Along the North, the tram line runs adjacent to the new neighborhood development. As a car-free zone, this corridor becomes an important pedestrian and soft mobility connection to the surrounding neighborhoods. The new ecological corridor extending down from Stromovka Royal Game Reserve passes by the Eastern side of the site, creating a lush green buffer between the Philharmonic and the train line.

Like Astana, which is located in the heart of the Kazakh mainland, the library would be integrated into the heart of a recreated Kazakh landscape. The park around the library is designed like a living library of trees, plants, minerals and rocks allowing visitors to experience a cross section of Kazakhstan’s natural landscape, and personally experience the capital’s transition across the country from Almaty to Astana.