YES IS MORE
Andreas Pedersen, from the Copenhagen firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)
BIG is a Copenhagen based group of over 60 architects, designers, builders and thinkers operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research and development. The office is currently involved in a large number of projects throughout Denmark, Scandinavia and the Middle East. BIG’s architecture emerges out of a careful analysis of how contemporary life constantly evolves and changes. Not least due to the influence from multicultural exchange, global economical flows and communication technologies that all together require new ways of architectural and urban organization. They believe that in order to deal with today’s challenges architecture can profitably move into a field being to a large extent unexplored a pragmatic utopian architecture that steer clear of the petrifying pragmatism of boring boxes and the naïve utopian ideas of digital formalism. In their projects they test the effects of size and the balance of programmatic mixtures on the triple bottom line of the social, economical and ecological outcome. Like a form of programmatic alchemy they create architecture by mixing conventional ingredients such as living, leisure, working, parking and shopping. By hitting the fertile overlap between pragmatic and utopia, BIG architects once again find the freedom to change the surface of our Planet, to better fit contemporary life forms. In all their actions they try to move the focus from the little details to the BIG picture.
I enjoyed the lecture particulary the earlier, more intimate and locally inspired work in Denmark. The firm seems to have a grasp of holistic thinking at multiple scales and dealing with human lifestyle. Parking, driving, exercising, recreating, sleeping, gardening, working, walking, eating are all part of the vision.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this lecture a lot more than a few of the other ones. The work they did just seemed fun. I especially loved the VM Houses and the subsequent parking garage. Just the details in the garage wall was beautiful enough, but both buildings were just wonderful. I really did enjoy what Mr. Pedersen had to show us.
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