A lecture by Bjarke Ingels, founding partner of Copenhagen, New York, London and Barcelona – based Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) with response by Amale Andraos, Dean of Columbia GSAPP.
BIG is a Copenhagen, New York, London and Barcelona based group of architects, designers, urbanists, landscape professionals, interior and product designers, researchers and inventors. The office is currently involved in a large number of projects throughout Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. BIG’s architecture emerges out of a careful analysis of how contemporary life constantly evolves and changes. Like a form of programmatic alchemy we create architecture by mixing conventional ingredients such as living, leisure, working, parking and shopping. By hitting the fertile overlap between pragmatic and utopia, we architects once again find the freedom to change the surface of our planet, to better fit contemporary life forms.
Bjarke Ingels founded BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group in 2005 after co-founding PLOT Architects in 2001 and working at OMA in Rotterdam. Bjarke defines architecture as the art and science of making sure our cities and buildings fit with the way we want to live our lives. Through careful analysis of various parameters from local culture and climate, ever-changing patterns of contemporary life, to the ebbs and flows of the global economy, Bjarke believes in the idea of information-driven-design as the driving force for his design process. Named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME Magazine in 2016, Bjarke has designed and completed award-winning buildings globally. Alongside his architectural practice, Bjarke has taught at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, and Rice University and is an honorary professor at the Royal Academy of Arts, School of Architecture in Copenhagen. He is a frequent public speaker and continues to hold lectures in venues such as TED, WIRED, AMCHAM, 10 Downing Street, the World Economic Forum and many more.
Free and open to the public, advanced registration is not required, however Columbia University affiliates will be given first entry, overflow seating will be available. Organized by Columbia GSAPP.
UNスタジオが建築テクノロジー会社「UNSense」を設立していて、様々なテクノロジーを盛り込んだ都市プロジェクト「100 Homes Project」を公開しています。以下がその解説動画。簡潔な英語でのキャプション入り。
Arch tech company UNSense, founded by UNStudio, is going to build an adaptive residential area of 100 houses in Brainport Smart District, Helmond. In this neighbourhood – a real-life testing environment – all kinds of smart services will be developed and tested in the areas of housing, energy, mobility and health, which will make life in this neighbourhood more sustainable and liveable. Technology at the service of the well-being of the inhabitants.
The Kunsthaus in Zürich, Switzerland, just opened a major solo exhibition by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. Eliasson’s show is titled “Symbiotic Seeing”. It presents many of his new works. At the center of “Symbiotic Seeing” is a large scale installation of the same name. Olafur Eliasson created the work exclusively for the Kunsthaus Zurich. It “addresses a key issue of our age: the relationship and interplay between human and non-human actors on Earth.
In ‘Symbiotic seeing’, Eliasson tackles themes such as coexistence and symbiosis and aims to bring about a fundamental shift of perspective. The exhibition invites us not only to reflect on climate change – as a consequence of human action – but also to comprehend the human being as part of a larger system. The socially and environmentally committed artist, who was appointed Goodwill Ambassador for climate action and the Sustainable Development Goals by the UN in September 2019, proposes an idea of the world based on coexistence and collaboration rather than competition.
Eliasson’s art translates complex theoretical deliberations into spatial works that not only appeal to people rationally but also touch them emotionally and move them physically.
He has been working for over twenty years with an interdisciplinary team that includes craftspeople, architects, media specialists and cooks. He is known for space-filling works, light works and sculptures that prompt audiences to reflect on themselves and the world as they experience them.”(excerpt from the info text).
Curated by Mirjam Varadinis, the exhibition runs until March 22, 2020.
藤森照信への、ルイジアナ美術館によるインタビュー動画「A Feeling of Freedom」です。日本語での受け答えに英語字幕付きです。
Meet Terunobu Fujimori, one of Japan’s most influential architects, who has enchanted the world with his playful, often elevated buildings made of natural materials such as wood, earth and stone. In this short video, Fujimori talks about his original interpretations of a traditional Japanese building – his iconic raised tea houses.
“I started to design tea houses because I was interested in the idea of flexibility and a fun design in a small space.” One of the reasons why the teahouses have flexibility, Fujimori explains, is due to the caste system of 400 years ago (when the Japanese style building was first established), which was suspended inside the tea house: “Everyone was equal inside the tea houses and enjoyed being together. And it is the same now. Inside the tea houses, we don’t think about social status, rich and poor. We just spend time together.” This feeling of freedom inside the tea house is what he tries to preserve when designing the building. In connection to this, Fujimori comments on architecture’s unique ability to please people regardless of their preferences: “So its role is to make people comfortable when they use it.” Moreover, it is essential for Fujimori to place the tea houses in such a way that they blend in with nature, and because of this, he builds with only natural materials from the location.
The Johnson Wax Headquarters in Racine Wisconsin, which opened in 1936 is a modern masterpiece designed by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. To celebrate the iconic building Squint/Opera created an immersive 360 film that allows viewers to explore the ground-breaking design from an intimate perspective.
Footage is accompanied by interviews with building occupants conducted with ambisonic microphones to provide a 360 degree representation of sound. Employees stories demonstrate the intricate beauty and innovation of the architecture within which they work alongside design flaws which are sometimes comical. Three-legged chairs were sleekly designed but unstable and often caused employees to fall over. From above, large domed windows with concentric patterns flood open spaces with natural light but would often leak and ruin documents or in the summer, make conditions too hot to work in.
Throughout the building, the incredible attention to detail and unique geometry is inspiring. Nothing was missed, even the underground parking spaces have beautiful domed structures and the elevators are like rounded bird cages floating through the building.
The film was written and produced by multi-award winning filmmaker and Squint/Opera Creative Director Callum Cooper and Carrie Budge, a multimedia producer whose award winning portfolio includes films for the Guardian, The Wall Street Journal and Vice.
The film was played during Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda’s announcement and used as part of a carefully choreographed presentation by Bjarke Ingels. At the heart of the design concept is how we experience the city, from how we interact with each other in our homes to new mobilities and sustainability. To bring this to life we needed to create a more immersive way for viewers to experience an architectural vision, so the film was made to be an eye-level tour with Bjarke Ingels transplanted into the digital proposal as a physical tour guide. As Bjarke explains his design philosophy the woven city is revealed around him.