It all boils down to form when it comes to liveable spaces, be it a residence, office, institution, retail, hospitality or health centre. How do you craft this form to create liveable city spaces that ensure a sustainable future? The Indian Institute of Interior Designers, Bengaluru Regional Chapter (IIID BRC) recently hosted the Copenhagen and New York-based Architectural Practice, Bjarke Ingels Group, known widely as BIG, to mark the installation of its new Chairperson, Architect Gunjan Das and her team.
Presenting their works to the gathered architect fraternity was Principal Architect Kai-Uwe Bergmann. He started with their 1 sqm design, the COVID-19 shield, during the pandemic and steadily increased the scale, which finally culminated in a million square metre project in New York City. His first project in the long list of his presentation was the design of the 34 sqm single hotel rooms in Sweden, perched on trees in the middle of a dense forest where each room was surrounded by 350 birdhouses. “The resident gets to view the array of bird nesting houses and hear their incessant singing from within the room, offering an unmatched experience of nature”, points Bergmann.
The Twist. Image by Kyrre Sundal
Building on water
Moving on to the design of a 700 sqm space in Copenhagen, Bergmann dwelt on a dormitory built for students using upcycled shipping containers, with the entire dorm floating over water. The containers are deftly organised to create a staggered arrangement of 11 individual dorms, with the space between them given attention to creating a gathering open zone. The individual units come with a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, where solar voltaic tiles address the heating, the grass roof offering passive cooling.
“The cost of these dorms is half of the normal rooms, offering the students budget accommodation while staying in a novel space on the water’s edge”, states Bergmann. “This ‘Blue Urbanism’ avoids the crowding of the cities”, he adds. Currently, 72 dorms have been built, with a request from the UN-Habitat to design a city of 10,000 units of similar residential spaces.
SFC Oceanic City. Image by BIG
Crafting in the twist
Scaling up to 1,400 sqm, Bergmann elaborated on a sculptural connecting bridge built for an art gallery in Norway, from one bank of the river to the other, where the three-storeyed bridge manifests as a stunning edifice with its astounding twist that carries through its entire structural expanse. “The entire structure looks curved, yet the twist has been created by craftily assembling straight pieces to create the dynamic curves”, explains Bergmann about their social infrastructure project christened aptly as the Twist.
The 7,000 sqm project presented next was one of restoring a 1930s stately mansion that had housed a bank but had later fallen into total disarray in the city of Paris. BIG took it up and repurposed it into a stately retail store that became an iconic stopover for any visitor to the city. Their 7,700 sqm skyscraper by the Hudson River in New York is the tallest skyscraper in the city, with a European concept of courtyard fused into the edifice piercing the Manhattan skyline. The inspiration of Central Park finds elements of the same packed into this courtyard, the green view and chirping birds experienced inside proving to be a novelty in the dense concrete city. Not surprisingly this built expanse is referred to as the ‘Courtscraper’.
Bergmann next moved on to their 96,000 sqm project in the city of Shenzhen, which abounds in glass towers, where solar panels cover the glass and make the interiors dark. “The purpose of using glass is then lost. Besides, the glass is not appropriate to use here. You have to create a tropical medium that is appropriate to the environment of the tropics”, opines Bergmann. BIG’s building, in contrast, is built as a solid blank on the South, to slowly open to the North so that the direct heat ingress is arrested. “The openings are pleated to permit exterior views while addressing effectively to the climate of the location.”
Klein. Image by Mathew Carbone.
Capitalising on trash
Their carbon-neutral project, a 2,04,000 sqm tech company, comes with its entire roof covered with a series of photovoltaic tiles, the curves giving the impression of a series of napkins or floating clouds serving as the roof over a series of courtyards, where ample indirect light filters inside. In their 4,10,000 sqm power plant project in Copenhagen, BIG was entrusted with the task of making the building look aesthetic. “This cannot be confined to just wrapping the building”, points Bergmann. BIG then came up with an astounding idea of using trash not only to generate power but also to turn it into a ski slope.
“Mounds of trash, including recycled plastic, were turned into a skiing slope that can be used both in summer and winter and make up for the absence of hills to use as natural skiing spots”, smiles Bergmann.
A city facelift and sights on outer space
The final project presented, a one million square metre project in Manhattan City, serves as a wrapping piece of infrastructure around Manhattan that would aid in protecting the city from flooding when a storm hits. “It also serves as a facelift for the city where there is provision for all ages to enjoy the emerging spaces”. The first 2.5 miles of this project has been successfully completed.
While these projects of BIG prevail on Mother Earth, the firm also decided to have its sights on outer space and successfully landed a project there, too. BIG has been requested by NASA to 3D print the first residence on the moon using moon dust and a 3D printer. Explorations on the possibilities of executing this project are actively on by the architecture firm.
