Hi Idea Festers. Michael Schnuerle here for the second of three live-blog post from the Idea Festival 2008. Bjarke Ingels will be speaking soon. He's the head of the Bjarke Ingels Group architecture firm in Copenhagen, Denmark, "considered by many to be among the most important emerging architecture offices in the world. BIG’s objective is to transform research and analysis of practical and theoretical issues into powerful new forces of design."
We'll see which topics he touches on, but I expect some discussion of the future of urban architecture and its importance and influence on the surrounding urban landscape and people.
1pm - The Dean of the College of Design from the University of Kentucky, introduces the Mr. Ingels. They have 60-85 employees and it's a remarkable firm.
Bjarke takes the stage to a rousing rendition of the Star Wars Main Theme accompanied by some faux star wars scrolling text over a star field. The video shows some concepts of a project he worked on about how to rethink the entire country of Denmark.
He's got a very interesting accent, something akin to a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but much more clear, and endearing.
Talking lots about the size of Denmark and its economy. Making note of the extreme length of the coast of Denmark (reminds me of Mandlebrot's fractal coastlines), and how the sea area of the country is twice the size of the land area.
He's got a very interesting animated presentation going while he
talks, and it is using some marvelous maps of the country, continent,
and world. They show industrial shipping lanes, harbor activity,
logistics, and how to increase shipping traffic to Denmark with the new
German-Danish bridge. This bridge and the new movement of goods will
create many new urban areas and a super harbor.
The Super Harbor will be a huge seven pointed star build in the middle
of the bay, huge and visible from space. The seven point design comes
from the log of the man who owns 25% of all the shipping containers in
the world. They designed it after his logo hoping for his investment
but he said no.
They hired a Fung Shui master to get the all the Chinese elements involved in the structure: fire = triangle = empty space below building for car, earth = square = public green square, metal = circle = structure, water = wave = bottom structures.
He’s comparing China and Demark, mostly showing opposites, but some interlocking similarities. Like how the Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson is required reading by Chinese children. Bicycles are very popular both countries, and at the upcoming World Expo, they’ll have bikes available.
They will also have a small Copenhagen harbor with real Danish water shipped over, and have the Little Mermaid sculpture to be shipped too. Five Chinese artists will create a replacement for the sculpture in Denmark.
Talking about his company, BIG, now. Revolution is being against someone, like following in reverse! So he prefers the idea of Evolution, like Charles Darwin’s concepts, where office idea evolve and the best ‘species’ win out in their design process The office is like an ecosystem, and he’s showing a detailed animated diagram of how ideas move through his office. Very slick.
‘Urban Tetris’ is a way to describe how a new apartment complex, that his company designed and a unit of which he bought, has interlocking architecture and structures.
Been working on the concept of “Architectureal Alchemy” where you combine concepts and ideas from outside of architecture into buildings, like excavation, cathedrals, rainbows, and mountains. He used six hole sizes to create an image of the Himalayas that spans then entire side of the apartment complex, where up close it’s just holes, but as you move away it looks like a marble texture, and then farther an image of a mountain range.
People density is important for creating vibrant communities in the city. In Denmark, there are laws and people that only want six stories tall. One interesting apartment complex was called Mini Manhattan, and caused the creation of the Foundation for Misplaced Skyscrapers. There are some challenges that tall buildings face in Denmark…
He’s trying to combine functionalism with beauty. Created a building that was made entirely of corner apartments with peaks and valleys. Used Lego Factory to create a 3D version of this building, and it generates a PDF with all the steps, and they built a real model too. Note that Lego was created in Denmark. Now they are obsessed with Lego and they built a giant version of it that matches the scale of a Lego person!
Projects are a series of improvisations. You cannot plan it from start to finish and know what you are going to get. An evolution.
The Hammerhead Shack is another creation of theirs. It’s a huge rectangle structure on top of a triangle. But the Swedish client said it looked like something Darth Vader made, like a Star Destroyer. Instead he wanted a flat square with a tower in the middle. So they did what they could with it, made a triangle building, with subtle images of the Prince and Princess on the sides only visible from miles away.
They seem to do a lot of work and concepts with visual images that change based on distance from them, some in tribute to some Andy Warhol images.
In Dubai, many people have created totally unsustainable architecture in the dessert. Glass skyscrapers that get too hot, require too much energy, and are too dark inside with tinted windows. They wanted to make a sustainable design, like a canopy on top up high with thinning structures below to support it. Looks a bit like a slice of stalactites resting on the ground. So the concept morphed into an architectural embodiment of a structure resting on the Five Pillars of Islam.
The result is an amazingly organic building. Kind of like a mosque interior. Reminds me of Gaudi’s architecture. And it is! He’s talking about how Gaudi used inverted sandbags to come up with building forms, and flip it upside down.
What is the future of the city? Politicians and investors seem to make these decisions, but it should be architectures. For recent elections, a politician proposed putting 5,000 affordable homes in downtown Copenhagen. But where? There is a huge green space called the Klover Field in the middle of the city. But you can’t destroy that. How about just getting the edges of the property to build on? So there is an undulating design with holes and rounded edges not block the sun, out of industry areas nearby, like a great wall, and the roof is a park. And it would be about 2,500 affordable homes in the area of a football field. But it met with opposition for the neighboring suburban area and a football club. In the end, some other lame scheme won a contest later. But it’s a great thing to pursue the concepts later.
2:10 - Closing notes from Bjarke. Architects need to be involved with the planning of cities. They have taken the concept of the Klover Field and retooled it for a rollercoaster shaped project on the outskirts of a Middle Eastern city. Fantastic.
The presentation is over, and there is no time for questions, but I’m sure everyone here really enjoyed the concepts and ideas presented. And maybe they can lend some insight into our own forthcoming Museum Plaza here in Louisville, and help get people to accept the bold concepts in that plan.
Thanks, and I’ll see you all tomorrow morning.
Michael Schnuerle, www.metromapper.org
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