History
Bjarke Ingels and Julien De Smedt established the company PLOT in Copenhagen in January 2001, as a focus for their architectural practice. Ingels established BIG in late 2006 after he and De Smedt closed down PLOT. BIG drew acclaim for its first completed commission, the Mountain, a residential project in Copenhagen which had been started by PLOT. Since then, BIG has completed more than 60 projects across the world, including a waste-to-energy plant which doubles as a ski-slope in Copenhagen, Denmark; the West 57th Street mixed-use VIA 57 West in midtown Manhattan, nicknamed a court-scraper, for Durst Fetner Residential; the headquarters for the Shenzhen Energy Company in Shenzhen; The Plus furniture factory for Vestre in the Norwegian forest; and the new Dock A at Zürich Airport. [3]
In December 2009, the company's partnership was expanded to include Thomas Christoffersen, Jakob Lange, Finn Nørkjaer, Andreas Klok Pedersen, David Zahle, CEO Sheela Maini Søgaard, and Kai-Uwe Bergmann. [4] The same year, BIG launched their first book and exhibition Yes Is More, an "archicomic" about architectural evolution published under Taschen.
In 2010, BIG opened a branch office in New York City, where they were commissioned to design the VIA 57 West courtscraper for Durst Fetner Residential. [5] BIG then began working with LEGO to design the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark, which opened in 2017. [6] In 2013, Hot to Cold, BIG's second book and exhibition, exploring how architecture evolves in response to its context and climate, was released.
At a lecture at the Royal Academy in July 2015, BIG proposed turning the Battersea Power Station in London into "the world's tallest Tesla coils." [7]
In 2015, BIG added four new partners: Beat Schenk and Daniel Sundlin in New York and Brian Yang and Jakob Sand in Copenhagen. BIG also secured work for CapitaLand Group with their high-rise CapitaSpring in Singapore, which officially opened in 2022. [8]
In May 2016, BIG partnered with Hyperloop One, Deutsche Bahn, and SYSTRA to develop a test of the high-speed, low friction Hyperloop concept. [9] They also began work with Google and architecture firm Heatherwick for Google's new headquarters in Mountain View, California. [10]
In March 2017, BIG signed a lease for an office in the Brooklyn neighborhood Dumbo, keeping its Manhattan office at the same time. [11] The firm, then 250 people in Manhattan's financial district, all moved to Dumbo. [12]
After an Instagram post showing that 11 of 12 partners at BIG were men, BIG CEO Sheela Maini Sogaard defended the firm's gender balance and stated they had created a "pipeline of diverse talent" that would eventually be "trickling up" into the partner group. [13] Today, the firm's Copenhagen, London, Barcelona and New York offices are led by female executives.
In 2018, BIG's exhibition Formgiving launched, exploring how the world around us has taken shape - and has been given shape - from the past to the present. [14] This was followed by the release of their book by the same name in 2020. [15]
In March 2018, BIG was named as the first high-profile architecture firm to be commissioned to design a public structure in Albania, [16] specifically the replacement building for the aging National Theatre of Albania, which no longer served the needs of the theater's staff or audiences [16] Plans to demolish and replace the old national theater with a building by BIG resulted in the National Theatre Protest in Albania in 2019, [17] as the old building was considered historic by the opposition party. [18] [19] [20] The demolition on 17 May 2020 resulted in continued protests and detainment of protestors by authorities. [21]
In 2019, the firm started to design the world's first vertical film studio, Wildflower Studios, Robert De Niro's movie studio in Queens, New York. [22]
BIG released a revision of its design proposal for the new Oakland Ballpark in February 2019, retaining its rooftop park with community access. [23] They've also worked on zoo enclosures, including Panda House at the Copenhagen Zoo. [24]
BIG announced that it was designing a masterplan for a new city for Toyota in January 2020, on a former factory site near Mount Fuji. [25]
In July 2021, BIG added seven additional partners for a total of 24: Andy Young, Lorenzo Boddi, João Albuquerque, Douglass Alligood, Lars Larsen, Giulia Frittoli, and Daria Pahhota. [26] BIG also opened its London office near Liverpool Street in the city center. In 2021, BIG was awarded the National Juneteenth Museum, dedicated to preserving the history of Juneteenth and legacy of freedom, in Fort Worth, Texas. [27]
In 2022, BIG expanded further, opening a new office in Barcelona. Construction concluded on IQON, the Quito-based project for developer Uribe Schwarzkopf. [28] In 2022, it was also announced that BIG and HOK won the competition to design the new Dock A at Zürich Airport. [3] The same year, the BIG-designed FLUGT - Refugee Museum of Denmark opened on the site of a former World War II refugee camp. [29] The city of Prague unveiled BIG's design for the country's first national concert hall in 100 years, the Vltava Philharmonic Hall. [30]
In 2023, BIG opened the BIG Los Angeles and BIG Oslo offices. The company also debuted its new ground-up, standalone headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark in the industrial harbor of Nordhavn. [31] BIG's first supertall, The Spiral, completed in Manhattan, New York City. [32] In May, it was announced that BIG would design Nashville's new Tennessee Performing Arts Center. [33]
