Bjarke Ingels facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bjarke Ingels
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Ingels in 2015
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Bjarke Bundgaard Ingels
2 October 1974 Copenhagen, Denmark
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| Alma mater | Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Practice | Bjarke Ingels Group |
Bjarke Ingels (born October 2, 1974) is a famous Danish architect. He is the founder and creative leader of a company called Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). Ingels is known for designing buildings that are not only useful but also fun and surprising.
In Denmark, he became well known for designing unique apartment buildings like the VM Houses and Mountain Dwellings. In 2006, he started BIG, which grew very quickly. His company has designed many amazing projects around the world. These include the 8 House apartment complex, the VIA 57 West building in New York, and even the Google headquarters in California (which he designed with Thomas Heatherwick).
Some of his most exciting projects include the Superkilen park and the Amager Resource Center (ARC). The ARC is a power plant that turns trash into energy, but it also has a ski slope and a climbing wall on its outside!
Since 2009, Ingels has won many architecture awards. He moved to New York City in 2012. There, his company won a competition to design a system to protect Manhattan from floods after Hurricane Sandy. In 2011, The Wall Street Journal called him an "Innovator of the Year" for architecture. In 2016, Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Ingels was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1974. His father was an engineer, and his mother was a dentist. When he was younger, Bjarke wanted to be a cartoonist. He started studying architecture in 1993 at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He thought it would help him get better at drawing.
After a few years, he became very interested in architecture itself. He continued his studies in Barcelona, Spain, and finished his degree in Copenhagen in 1999. While still a student, he even started his first design company and won his first competition!
Besides his work at BIG, Ingels has also been a guest professor at several top universities. These include Harvard Graduate School of Design and Yale School of Architecture.
Building a Career
Starting Out: PLOT and Early Designs (1998–2005)
From 1998 to 2001, Ingels worked for a famous architect named Rem Koolhaas in the Netherlands. In 2001, he returned to Copenhagen. There, he started an architecture company called PLOT with a friend, Julien de Smedt. Their designs quickly gained attention for being very creative. In 2004, they won a special award called a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture for their design of a music house in Norway.
PLOT completed some cool projects in Copenhagen. In 2003, they designed the Islands Brygge Harbour Bath. These were five outdoor swimming pools right on the harbor, with special areas for kids. They also built the Maritime Youth House, a sailing club and youth center.
One of PLOT's first big successes was the VM Houses in Copenhagen, finished in 2005. These apartment buildings were shaped like the letters V and M when seen from above. The design focused on letting in lots of daylight and giving residents great views. There were many different types of apartments to fit everyone's needs. This building won Ingels and Smedt an award for the best building in Scandinavia in 2006. Ingels even lived there for a few years!
In 2005, Ingels also designed the Helsingør Psychiatric Hospital in Denmark. This hospital was shaped like a snowflake. Each room was designed to have a nice view, either of a lake or the surrounding hills.
Forming BIG and New Ideas (2006–2008)
At the end of 2005, PLOT split up. In January 2006, Ingels started his own company, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). By 2016, BIG had grown to 400 employees!
One of BIG's first projects was the Mountain Dwellings, built next to the VM Houses. This building combined apartments with a large parking garage. The apartments were built on the sloping roof of the garage, creating an artificial "mountainside" where each apartment had a big terrace. The parking garage walls were covered in a huge picture of the Mount Everest peaks. This building won several awards, including the World Architecture Festival Housing Award in 2008.
Their third big housing project was the 8 House, finished in 2010. This was one of the largest private developments ever in Scandinavia. It combined apartments, shops, and offices in a building shaped like a figure 8. It has a green roof, which won an award in 2010. The Huffington Post even called it one of the "10 Best Architecture Moments" of that decade.
In 2007, Ingels was asked to design the Danish Maritime Museum in Helsingør. This museum is built underground, inside an old dry dock. The design makes sure that daylight still reaches inside. The museum's interior feels like being on a ship's deck, with a slight slope. It holds a large collection of paintings, model ships, and historical items from the Danish Navy.
Expanding Globally (2009–Present)
Ingels designed a special pavilion for the Danish World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China. It was shaped like a loop and had a spiral bike path. Visitors could bike through it and learn about Danish culture. In the center, there was a pool with the famous The Little Mermaid statue from Copenhagen.
In 2009, Ingels also designed the new National Library of Kazakhstan, which looks like a giant metallic doughnut. Other international projects included a city hall in Estonia and an education center in the Faroe Islands.
In 2010, BIG started working on a huge eco-resort on Zira Island off the coast of Baku, Azerbaijan. This resort was designed to look like the seven mountains of Azerbaijan and aimed to be a "zero-emission" development. It was planned to be one of the world's largest eco-friendly projects.
In 2011, BIG won a competition to design the roof of the Amagerforbrænding industrial building (the Amager Resource Center). This roof was designed to have 31,000 m2 (330,000 sq ft) of ski slopes! It's a great example of what Ingels calls "hedonistic sustainability," meaning it's good for the environment but also fun.
In 2012, Ingels moved to New York to work on a pyramid-shaped apartment building called VIA 57 West. BIG opened a permanent office in New York and took on more projects there. In 2014, Ingels's design for a flood protection system, called the DryLine, won a competition. This system will help protect Manhattan's shoreline from future storms.
BIG also designed the Lego House in Billund, Denmark, which started construction in 2014. Ingels said that if BIG was created for just one building, it would be to design the house for Lego. It's designed like a village of interlocking buildings, just like Lego bricks! They also designed a master plan for the new Smithsonian Institution campus in Washington, D.C., a big project that began in 2016.
In 2015, Ingels started working on a new headquarters for Google in California with British designer Thomas Heatherwick. Later that year, BIG was chosen to design Two World Trade Center in New York City, one of the towers replacing the original Twin Towers.
Other Creative Work
In 2009, Ingels helped start KiBiSi, a design group. They design everything from bicycles and furniture to household items. KiBiSi even designed the furniture for Ingels' Danish Pavilion at the 2010 Expo.
Ingels has also written books. His first book, Yes Is More: An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution, was like a comic book. He believed this was the best way to tell stories about architecture. His second book, Hot to Cold: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptation, looked at how people live in different climates around the world.
Ingels has given talks at TED events and other conferences, sharing his ideas about architecture and sustainability. In 2015, he even designed a new line of bath and kitchen products called "taper," which had a simple, modern design.
Films About His Work
Ingels has been featured in several documentary films. He was in My Playground, a film about parkour and freerunning, which often took place on his buildings. He was also part of Genre de Vie, a film about bicycles and cities. In 2017, he was profiled in the Netflix series Abstract: The Art of Design, which explores the minds of top designers.
Design Philosophy
Bjarke Ingels and BIG are known for their unique approach to architecture. They combine careful analysis with playful ideas, social responsibility, and humor. The Netherlands Architecture Institute described him as part of a new generation of architects who do this.
Ingels sees architecture as "the art of translating all the immaterial structures of society – social, cultural, economical and political – into physical structures." He believes buildings should respond to their local environment and climate. He also focuses on "hedonistic sustainability," which means making buildings that are good for the planet but also fun and enjoyable for people. He says, "It's not about what we give up to be sustainable, it's about what we get."
In 2014, Ingels released a video called Worldcraft. In it, he talked about creating architecture that turns "surreal dreams into inhabitable space." He compared it to video games like Minecraft, where people can build their own worlds. He believes architecture should be like "Worldcraft," allowing us to turn our wildest ideas into real places.
Notable Projects
- Islands Brygge Harbour Bath, Copenhagen (completed 2003)
- VM Houses, Ørestad, Copenhagen (completed 2005)
- Mountain Dwellings, Ørestad, Copenhagen (completed 2008)
- 8 House, Ørestad, Copenhagen (completed 2010)
- Superkilen, a public park in Copenhagen (completed 2011)
- Danish Maritime Museum, Helsingør, Denmark (completed 2013)
- Amager Bakke, incinerator power plant and ski hill (completed 2017)
- VIA 57 West, New York City (completed 2016)
- Lego House, Billund, Denmark (completed 2017)
Exhibitions
- 2007 BIG City, Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York
- 2009 Yes is More, Danish Architecture Centre, Copenhagen
- 2015 Hot to Cold: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptation, National Building Museum, Washington D.C.
Awards
- 2004 Golden Lion for best concert hall design, Venice Biennale of Architecture
- 2006 Forum AID Award, Best Building in Scandinavia (for VM Houses)
- 2008 Forum AID Award for Best Building in Scandinavia (for Mountain Dwellings)
- 2010 European Prize for Architecture
- 2011 The Wall Street Journal Architectural Innovator of the Year Award
- 2012 American Institute of Architects Honor Award for 8 House
- 2013 American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Superkilen
- 2014 European Prize of Architecture Philippe Rotthier (for the Danish Maritime Museum)
- 2015 Global Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction, Bronze (for The DryLine flood protection project)
- 2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture
- 2017 C.F. Hansen Medal
Images for kids
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Model for West 57, New York
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"Yes Is More" exhibition, Copenhagen, 2009
See also
In Spanish: Bjarke Ingels para niños
