Page 112 - The Book For Men Spring/Summer 2024

BJARKE INGELS IS COMFORTABLE WITH CONTRADICTIONS. it’s emerging from the ground, his projects often give the illusion of being in
Throughout the course of our video call, the superstar Danish architect and founder of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) often opts for oxymorons to etch out his philosophies. Expounding on these terms (such as “hedonistic sustainability” and “pragmatic utopia”) is how he distills his big ideas on environmentalism, place-making, and the future. It’s also how he contextualizes his work in a world where his designs surpass the norm.
Conceptually, Ingels perceives projects as ways of reconciling opposing forces, like transforming outlandish ideas into concrete struc- tures or creating technologically advanced buildings that seamlessly complement their natural settings. At the Brooklyn headquarters of
BIG, a group that specializes in architecture, urban planning, engineering, landscape ideation, and product design, Ingels leans back in his chair, BIG employees can be seen scurrying around behind him through the conference room’s glass walls.
Pragmatic utopia, a term first coined by architect Davidya Kasperzyk, has become a compass of sorts for Ingels, who moved from Denmark to New York in 2010. “You’d think that pragmatism and utopianism would be irreconcilable,” he explains from his DUMBO office. “But if utopia is the idea of a world so perfect that it can’t exist in real life, and pragmatism is an attitude toward the world that deals with it as it is, pragmatic utopianism is this idea that — within the constraints and confines of the canvas you have to play with — you try to make the best possible manifestation of the ideal world.”
Each of Ingels’s designs is an expression of this ethos. From the tiered floors at the Heights School in Arlington, Va., and the towering isosceles at VIA 57 West in New York City, to the floating hotel nestled among the trees in northern Sweden and a forestial Norwegian furniture factory that looks like
motion, evoking a feeling of momentum.
In Canada, BIG was the team behind both Vancouver House, a skyscraper
with cascading units that create the illusion of a twisted building, and Telus Sky, a high-rise with a futuristic facade designed to look pixelated. Next up is King Toronto, a unique 16-storey residence located on King Street West. With this new addition to the city’s oft-discussed condo landscape, Ingels hopes to create opportunities for connection and community. And, with balconies attached to each unit and lush terraces on more than half of them, he’s also trying to bridge the gap between inside and out. This concept hits close to home: back in Denmark, Ingels’s childhood cast nature as the catalyst for creativity.
As a child, the architect recalls often forgetting his house keys and being stuck outside after school. “I would typically be with a friend and we would venture into the forest adjacent to my house. We’d roam around there,” he recalls. Ingels credits these moments of being locked out and left to explore in nature for fostering his deep sense of wonder.
He also fondly remembers his childhood bedroom being covered with his drawings. Along one wall, a long bookshelf was filled with graphic novels — early on in life, Ingels dreamt of being a cartoonist, which eventually inspired him to attend architecture school. As a student, the idea of bringing drawings or sketches to life inspired him above all else. And, having gleaned inspiration from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight and Jean Giraud’s Blueberry, he initially began studying architecture only to improve his drawing. “I thought it was a good idea to learn to draw buildings and landscapes because I spent most of my childhood focusing on characters, vehicles, animals — anything that moved. I wanted to spend some time on the backdrop.”
It wasn’t until a class trip to Barcelona that he truly fell in love with architecture. Studying the work of icons like Antoni Gaudí, he says, “[showed
112 BFM / SS24 FEATURE / NEW HEIGHTS