Structuring it BIG

BIG's projects showcase how form can be used to create liveable city spaces that ensure a sustainable future. From 1 sqm to 1 million sqm, their designs offer a unique experience of nature, budget accommodation, stunning edifices, carbon-neutral buildings and protection from flooding.BIG's projects showcase how form can create liveable city spaces for a sustainable future. From 1 sqm to 1 million sqm, their designs offer unique nature experiences, budget accommodation, stunning edifices, carbon-neutral buildings and protection from flooding.

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.

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.

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.”