NEWS
MAR 31ST, 2021 - BIG WINS SECOND PLACE IN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION FOR SHENZHEN’S OPERA HOUSE
BIG and BIAD’s design, The Rhythm of the Sea, is a runner up in the competition for Shenzhen’s new opera house on the city’s waterfront, which included a shortlist of over 15 proposals from architects worldwide. The Rhythm of the Sea is conceived as a fantasy factory seamlessly integrating production and performance in back-of-house and front-of-house volumes, creating a terrain shaped by the diverse spaces of the opera house for audience members and the public to explore.
FEB 15TH, 2021 - VOTE MUSÉE ATELIER AUDEMARS PIGUET FOR ARCHDAILY’S BUILDING OF THE YEAR
Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet is a finalist among four contender’s for ArchDaily’s Building of the Year 2021 award in the Cultural Architecture category. The museum is located among the historical complex of workshops and factories in Le Brassus in the heart of La Vallée de Joux, and recently opened last Spring. Vote for the pavilion dedicated to the art and science of watchmaking here.
FEB 11TH, 2021 - HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!
恭禧發財! Happy Chinese New Year from all of us at BIG!
FEB 3RD, 2021 - COMING SOON FOR BIG IN 2021
BIG in 2021: we look forward to new silhouettes appearing across skylines and landscapes around the world! Stay tuned.
FEB 2ND, 2021 - BIG SELECTED AS 1 OF 16 ARCHITECTS TO DESIGN HAIKOU PAVILIONS BY THE SEASIDE IN HAINAN
BIG is honored to be invited to design 1 of 16 pavilions for Pavilions by the Seaside, hosted by the Haikou Tourism & Culture Investment Holding Group and the organisers Beijing Arts Innovation Co and Beijing Center for the Arts. Spanning 32 kilometers of coastline in Hainan, the Haikou project is planned by art curator Weng Ling for fellow international and local Chinese architects and artists to form a group of coastal landmark buildings. We look forward to exploring a design that balances the manmade with nature, art with science, and technology with tradition.
JAN 27TH, 2021 - BIG AND VIRGIN HYPERLOOP UNVEIL PASSENGER EXPERIENCE VISION WITH ARCH DIGEST
A few months after the first passengers tested BIG’s design for Virgin Hyperloop’s Pegasus pod, today the the end-to-end future hyperloop experience is unveiled. The newly-released concept video takes the viewer step-by-step through a hyperloop journey, from arriving at the BIG-designed portal to boarding the pod. The collaborations include Teague for the pod designs, SeeThree for the video and animation, and Man Made Music for the score and sonic identity – to design a comprehensive, multi-sensory passenger experience that surpasses that of any other form of mass transit.
JAN 26TH, 2021 - ARCH DIGEST ON REIMAGINING THE URBAN SHORELINES OF NEW YORK CITY
As New Yorkers take to the water’s edge, architects and various designers propose new models for urban coasts in the face of climate change. Architectural Digest takes a look at BIG’s River Ring Waterfront Masterplan vision for Brooklyn, in collaboration with Two Trees Management and James Corner Field Operations, which seeks to enhance connectivity of the public waterfront, restore natural habitats, and elevate the standard for urban waterfront resiliency. In Manhattan, the BIG U progresses with its first phase, the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, underway this year.
JAN 25TH, 2021 - TWO BIG PROJECTS NAMED CTBUH AWARD OF EXCELLENCE WINNERS
CTBUH Award of Excellence winners Vancouver House and Telus Sky add unique (inverse) silhouettes to their Canadian city skylines. CTBUH recognizes contributions to the advancement of tall buildings and the urban environment, and for achieving sustainability at the highest and broadest level. Images by Ema Peters.
JAN 24TH, 2021 - THE SPIRAL FOR TISHMAN SPEYER TOPS OUT AT HUDSON YARDS
BIG’s 66-story tower for Tishman Speyer, called The Spiral, tops out in the Hudson Yards District after breaking ground in 2018. The skyscraper will include a continuous green pathway with workspaces on every level, and will soon be home to its first signed office tenant, Pfizer Inc., the pharmaceutical giant that produced a COVID-19 vaccine in record time.
JAN 21ST, 2021 - POLITIKEN’S ARCHITECTURE EDITOR REVIEWS FORMGIVING
Politiken’s Architecture Editor reviews BIG’s latest book with TASCHEN: Formgiving explores projects both built and in progress, while considering the ability for architecture to give “gifts.” As Karsten Ifversen writes, “generosity is a basis for all good architecture: to create beautiful, enduring environments that go beyond what was originally asked for or thought about”.
JAN 20TH, 2021 - CAPITASPRING TOPS OFF IN SINGAPORE
CapitaSpring, the newest 280-metre-tall skyscraper in Singapore’s CBD will be home to future technology workspaces, new F&B concepts including the world’s highest farm-to-plate restaurant, and a smart serviced residence. BIG and Carlo Ratti Associati’s design for the 51-storey landmark in Raffles Place is set to make a distinctive mark on the Singapore skyline: the building’s exterior façade consists of vertical elements that are pulled apart to allow glimpses into the green oases blooming from the base, core and rooftop. A dynamic interplay of orthogonal lines and lush greenery presents itself in the contrasting textures of steel and glass, interweaved with tropical vegetation.
JAN 19TH, 2021 - MUSÉE ATELIER AUDEMARS PIGUET NAMED 2020 BEST OF YEAR WINNER FOR INTERIOR DESIGN AWARD
The recently completed Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet is an Interior Design Magazine global Best of the Year Award winner. Visitors can tour through the museum like clockwork, and see the longstanding tradition of Swiss horology come to life as watchmakers practice the craft before their eyes.
JAN 13TH, 2021 - SKANSKA CONFIRMS ANCHOR TENANT FOR NEW BIG-DESIGNED OFFICE IN TEXAS
Skanska, a leading global development and construction firm, announced that it has secured global law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright, as the anchor tenant for its newest office tower in Houston. Designed by BIG, the 28-story office building adjacent to Discovery Green embraces Skanska’s tenant-first approach, focusing on sustainability and tenant wellness throughout the building.
JAN 12TH, 2021 - MUSÉE ATELIER AUDEMARS PIGUET AND RIVER RING WIN AIA NY AWARDS
Every year, The American Institute of Architects (AIA) NY Awards recognize outstanding architecture by New York City architects, or New York City-based projects from architects around the world. For the 2021 program, BIG’s Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet has won the highest Honor Award in Architecture for its beautiful execution from the urban scale to the finer details. In the Urban Planning category, River Ring masterplan designed with James Corner Field Operations, has been given a Citation Award for architecture that is in service of the public realm, expanding the city, and capturing the Brooklyn waterfront as a new urban space for public recreation.
DEC 18TH, 2020 - CNN TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT PROJECT OLYMPUS
With NASA’s Artemis missions starting next year, NASA aims to have astronauts on the moon in 2024 and anticipates a permanent lunar base by the end of the decade. CNN takes a closer look at BIG’s Project Olympus with ICON as the first habitat ever constructed on an extraterrestrial surface, and its unprecedented challenges.
DEC 18TH, 2020 - TWO BIG PROJECTS SELECTED AS 2020 UNESCO PRIX VERSAILLES AWARD WINNERS
UNESCO’s Prix Versailles Award 2020 administered by the United Nations announces BIG’s design for the Isenberg School of Management Business Innovation Hub as the Exterior World Winner in Campuses, and Galeries Lafayette on the Champs-Élysées as the Europe Continental Winner in Shopping Malls. The UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Prix Versailles Awards annually recognizes the world’s best architecture and design projects that promote sustainable development in ecology, society, and culture. Isenberg School of Management Business Innovation Hub and the Galeries Lafeyette retail laboratory designed by BIG were selected for encompassing innovation, creativity, reflection of local, natural and cultural heritage, and ecological efficiency, as well as the values of social interaction which the United Nations holds in high regard.
DEC 15TH, 2020 - BIG REINTERPRETS A 100+ YEAR ZONING LAW IN THE HEART OF HARLEM
The Smile, designed by BIG, is a mixed-use development introducing affordable housing units alongside market rate rentals, set within the vibrant Harlem streetscape. The Smile is a reinterpretation of the landmark 1916 Building Zone Resolution, which enforced the construction of “stepped façade” towers in order to allow light and air back into the streetscapes. Draped between two existing buildings, the 260,000SF building gently curves inwards as it rises upwards to bring ample daylight into the residential streets while enlivening and connecting to the lively Harlem neighborhood. The Smile has 233 units, with one third of the apartments reserved for affordable housing, all designed with a minimal palette of warm wooden interiors, and with access to amenities including a gym, wet spa and sauna, coworking spaces, and rooftop pools.
DEC 10TH, 2020 - WALLPAPER* REVIEWS FORMGIVING
Wallpaper* takes a look inside Formgiving, uncovering the BIG projects and approaches which have “exploited a hidden facet within the client’s brief to make the final design something more than what it might otherwise have been.” Formgiving is BIG’s third installation of the TASCHEN trilogy, and is available for purchase here.
DEC 9TH, 2020 - BIG AND ARUP’S BACK TO THE FUTURE PROPOSAL WINS 2020 AIANY + ASLANY TRANSPORTATION + INFRASTRUCTURE AWARD
BIG and Arup’s Back to the Future proposal has won a Merit Award in this year’s AIANY + ASLANY Transportation + Infrastructure Award, our second win since BQ-Park was recognized last year. The New York award highlights innovative design approaches to transportation and infrastructure that maintain a commitment to sustainability, community engagement, and civic architecture. As a response to the Reimagining Brooklyn Bridge competition hosted by Van Alen Institute, Back to the Future returns the 19th century bridge to to its original iconic state while piloting innovations in autonomous mobility and public space design, including the release of 32 acres of public realm.
DEC 3RD, 2020 - COPENHILL FEATURES IN NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC’S LIST OF 2021 DESTINATIONS ON THE RISE
National Geographic considers the year ahead with the promise of a return to travel—25 timeless places are chosen based on: Adventure, Culture and History, Nature, Family, Sustainability. Copenhagen makes the list, as a city on track to becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral capital by 2025. BIG’s CopenHill helps the city burn 70 tons of waste per hour and produces clean energy for 60,000 families, while heating 120,000 homes. Its rooftop invites the public to play with hiking trails and a year-round ski and snowboard slope, and a stacked-block facade climbing wall.
ABOUT
BIG-BJARKE INGELS GROUP
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. 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. We believe that in order to deal with today’s challenges, architecture can profitably move into a field that has been largely unexplored. A pragmatic utopian architecture that steers clear of the petrifying pragmatism of boring boxes and the naïve utopian ideas of digital formalism. 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.
BIG LEADERSHIP
BIG is led by 17 Partners: Bjarke Ingels, Sheela Maini Søgaard, Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Thomas Christoffersen, Finn Nørkjær, David Zahle, Jakob Lange, Andreas Klok Pedersen, Daniel Sundlin, Jakob Sand, Brian Yang, Beat Schenk, Agustin Perez-Torres, Martin Voelkle, Leon Rost, Catherine Huang and Ole Elkjær-Larsen.
26 Associates: Ziad Shehab, Sören Grünert, Jakob Henke, Jeremy Alain Siegel, Andreas Buettner, Michelle Stromsta, Linus Saavedra, Aran Coakley, Jelena Vucic, Kristian Hindsberg, Elizabeth McDonald, Blake Smith (NYC) Frederik Lyng, Matthew Oravec, Gabrielle Nadeau, Nanna Gyldholm Møller, Eva Seo-Andersen, Tobias Hjortdal, Per Bo Madsen, Snorre Nash, Enea Michelesio, Kekoa Charlot (CPH) Lorenzo Boddi (LON) Maria Sole Bravo, Hanna Johansson and João Albuquerque (BCN).
15 Directors: Anne Brown Frandsen (CFO), Dan Bjerg Hansen (CCO), Everett Hollander (COO), Allison Wicks, Nathan Smith (Business Development), Andy Young (Technical), Jan Leenknegt (BIM), Ulla Hornsyld, Jamie Maslyn Larson (Landscape), Jeffrey Shumaker (Urban Planning), Francesca Portesine (Interiors), Florencia Kratsman (Space Planning), Nicolas Kastbjerg, Henriette Helstrup (Managing Directors), Sean Franklin (Commercial Director), Kristian Palsmar and Alexander Bøegh (IT).
BIG’s Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement 2018
BIG’s Privacy Policy 2020
FOUNDING PARTNER – BJARKE INGELS
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.
Bjarke was appointed Knight of the French Order Arts et Lettres and the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Dannebrog in 2019 and 2018, respectively. He was named an Honorary Fellow by the AIA in 2020, the RIBA in 2015 and the RAIC in 2014. The Wall Street Journal recognized Bjarke as Innovator of the Year in 2011, the same year he received the Danish Crown Prince’s Culture Prize. Bjarke was also awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2004 and the ULI Award for Excellence in 2009. 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.
PARTNER & CEO – SHEELA SØGAARD
As Chief Executive Officer and Partner, Sheela Maini Søgaard manages the overall health and growth of the studio’s 500+ designers and support functions globally. Sheela oversees BIG’s finances, operations and business development, and is responsible for optimizing cash flow, developing the organization and executing strategic priorities. Prior to joining BIG as Chief Financial Officer in 2008, Sheela led Business Development efforts for Danish culinary entrepreneur and NOMA co-founder Claus Meyer and before that, she developed strategic solutions at McKinsey & Company. Sheela is an Advisory Board Member for the National Gallery of Denmark and is on the Board of Directors at Maj Bank. In 2019, Fast Company named Sheela on the Most Creative People in Business List and in 2017, Berlingske Business featured her as one of the Top 100 Female Executives in Denmark. Having roots in Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Denmark, Sheela holds a Master’s degree from Copenhagen Business School.
PARTNER – FINN NØRKJÆR
Finn Nørkjær has collaborated with Bjarke Ingels since he won the competition for the Aquatic Centre in Aalborg in 2001. Finn is instrumental in materializing BIG’s visionary architecture by bringing his extensive experience to the table. Finn has been deeply involved in most of BIG’s built projects, including VM Houses, The Mountain, The Danish Pavilion for the 2010 Shanghai Expo, Gammel Hellerup High School, TIRPITZ Museum and LEGO House. Most recently, Finn has worked on the Glasir – Torshavn College on the Faroe Islands, word’s best restaurant noma in Copenhagen and affordable housing Dortheavej Residence, all of which completed within the last two years.
PARTNER – THOMAS CHRISTOFFERSEN
Thomas Christoffersen began his collaboration with Bjarke Ingels in 2001 during PLOT. Thomas has worked on every notable project from VM Houses in Copenhagen to VIA 57 West in Manhattan, the landmark towers Grove at Grand Bay in Miami and Isenberg School of Management in Massachusetts. He is currently overseeing the design of Google’s California headquarters and the sports neighborhood East Austin District, as well as the construction of The Honeycomb residences in the Bahamas, Vancouver House in Canada and a higher education facility in Virginia. In addition to his long standing participation in all things BIG, Thomas took a sabbatical year to work in New York City with WORK Architects and has also worked with Stan Allen, David Ling in NYC and Henning Larsen Architects.
PARTNER – KAI-UWE BERGMANN
Kai-Uwe Bergmann brings his expertise to proposals around the globe, including work in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Kai-Uwe heads up BIG’s business development which currently has the office working in over 20 different countries as well as overseeing BIG’s Communications. Registered as an architect in the USA (thirteen states) and Canada (one province), Kai-Uwe most recently contributed to the resiliency plan The Dryline to protect 10 miles of Manhattan’s coastline. He compliments his professional work through previous teaching assignments at the University of Florida, the New School of Architecture in San Diego and his alma mater the University of Virginia. Kai-Uwe is recognized in the AIA College of Fellows, sits on the Board of the Van Alen Institute, participates on numerous international juries and lectures globally on the works of BIG.
PARTNER – ANDREAS KLOK PEDERSEN
Andreas Klok Pedersen is Partner and Design Director of BIG London. He is partner-in-charge of competitions, masterplans and large-scale buildings in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Most recently completed is the MÉCA culture house in Bordeaux, 220m tall Shenzhen Energy Headquarters in China, the first mixed-use high rise in Germany, the Omniturm, in central Frankfurt, and Transitlager residence in Basel. Andreas has been leading several competition designs that are currently under construction, including the Sluishuis in Amsterdam and the masterplan for Ø4 pier in Aarhus, which entails the architectural development of housing, hotel, theatre, public realm and harbour bath. Andreas has led a series of BIG’s strategic planning projects with a focus on sustainability, ranging from the Loop City in 2010, Audi Urban Future in 2010, Capital of Children in 2015 and Mars Science City in 2017. He teaches at the Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen and the AHO School of Architecture in Oslo. Andreas has been a Studio Director at the Strelka Institute for architecture and urbanism in Moscow, and continues to lecture internationally on BIG’s current research and projects.
PARTNER – DAVID ZAHLE
David Zahle’s collaboration with Bjarke Ingels began in 2002 with the VM Houses in Copenhagen, followed by leading the winning design proposal for the Helsingør Psychiatric Hospital which completed in 2006. David oversees the design of many prominent cultural and mixed-use projects in Scandinavia, including The Twist, a new art gallery in Kistefos Sculpture Park in Norway; Västerås Travel Center in Sweden; Amager Bakke / Copenhill, a new waste-to-energy plant with a green rooftop park and a ski slope; Panda House at Copenhagen Zoo; Berlin Towers; and Cloud City residences in Aalborg. David also worked on the Danish Maritime Museum, designed around an abandoned dry dock next to a UNESCO-listed site in Helsingør, Denmark. Since early 2015, David has been responsible for Business Development at BIG’s office in Copenhagen. Alongside his architectural work, David is a host of the tv-show ‘Masterful conversions’ on Denmark’s national TV2 program.
PARTNER – JAKOB LANGE
Jakob Lange has collaborated with Bjarke Ingels since 2003 and heads up BIG’s technology-driven special projects division BIG Ideas. Through analysis and simulation, BIG Ideas informs BIG’s design decisions with precise data – what Bjarke has coined as information-driven design. Special projects include the pod and station design for the Californian transportation company Virgin Hyperloop One proposed by Elon Musk, Mars Science City in the Middle East, a green window farm technology, customized lamps, and building systems supporting the studio’s work from small details to the BIG picture. Jakob has been instrumental in winning some of BIG’s largest commissions, including the design and development of the Mountain residences in Copenhagen, the new Tallinn Town Hall in Estonia, which received a MIPIM Future Award in 2011 and the high-end residential building 79&Park in Stockholm, Sweden. Jakob is also a Board member at Virgin Hyperloop One.
PARTNER – JAKOB SAND
Jakob Sand joined BIG in 2011 to lead the team for the prize-winning Paris PARC project for the Jussieu Campus of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie. Since then, he has been in charge of several prominent developments, including the recently completed MÉCA cultural center in Bordeaux and Galeries Lafayette on the Champs-Élysées. Jakob is currently overseeing the Pont de Bondy metro station and Europa City Masterplan in Paris. Working in both Paris and Copenhagen for many years has given him an excellent knowledge of European culture and building practice. For five years, Jakob has worked closely with Dominique Perrault in participating on prize-winning projects, including the Palais des Sports de Rouen, which he led through all phases to construction, as well as the French Pavilion for the Venice Biennale 2010 for which he was Project Leader. Together with Perrault, Jakob also developed several large-scale competitions including the Headquarters for EDF and Tours de Pont des Sevres, both in Paris, and the University ARTEM in Nancy, Seoul Opera House in South Korea and the University in Belval in Luxembourg.
PARTNER – BEAT SCHENK
Beat Schenk joined BIG in 2010 as Senior Project Manager and is now the Director of Detail Design. Beat’s collaboration with Bjarke Ingels dates back to 2000, where he worked alongside Bjarke on the Seattle Public Library in Seattle, Washington for the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). Prior to his current role, he worked on a variety of healthcare, educational, and cultural projects around the globe. Beat has more than 20 years of experience as Project Architect and Designer and has sharpened his skills while working on many notable buildings in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. While at Frank O. Gehry Partners, he worked on a number of museum projects – including the Guggenheim Museums in Bilbao, Spain and Lower Manhattan, NYC – besides working on the Vitra Chair Museum Expansion in Weil, Germany.
PARTNER – DANIEL SUNDLIN
Daniel joined BIG in 2008 and became Partner in 2015. He has worked on many of BIG’s most prominent projects and competitions, including Tallinn Town Hall in Estonia, Slussen Masterplan in Stockholm, PARC Jussieu Campus in Paris and the mixed-use residential building VIA 57 West in New York. Daniel currently oversees the expansion of the Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California; the Wilson Secondary School in Arlington, Virginia; the 1,005ft tall office skyscraper The Spiral and the East Side Coastal Resiliency project both in Manhattan, New York. He is also one of the lead designers of Audemars Piguet’s prize-winning Musee Atelier and Hôtel des Horlogers in Le Brassus, Switzerland, set to open in 2020.
PARTNER – BRIAN YANG
Brian Yang joined BIG in 2007 and was named Partner in 2015. He has worked closely with Bjarke Ingels on a wide range of projects from the 8 House, a residential building in Copenhagen, to the conceptual design of a mobile gallery for the Tate Modern in London. He has been the Project Leader on a number of competition winning proposals, including the Amager Bakke / Copenhill waste-to-energy plant in Copenhagen that doubles as a ski slope, Kistefos Art Museum in Oslo, and a sustainable multifamily residential development in Finland. Most recently he has been the design leader for LEGO House, which opened its doors to critical acclaim in 2017. With a background in energy efficiency research as well as undergraduate studies in economics, Brian brings additional focus on environmental and economic sustainability into all of his projects. Prior to joining BIG, Brian worked at a number of practices internationally, and while at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, led a project team for a pavilion exhibited at the 2009 Gwangju Design Biennale in South Korea.
PARTNER – CATHERINE HUANG
Catherine Huang joined BIG in 2007 and became Partner in 2018. She has worked closely with Bjarke Ingels across a wide range of projects and typologies such as the completed Danish Pavilion for the 2010 Shanghai Expo, the energy efficient skyscraper Shenzhen Energy HQ which just opened its doors, a low energy masterplan in Toronto, as well as residential projects in Copenhagen and Stockholm that enhance the urban fabric by creating shared social spaces. Most recently she was the Design Leader for a residential complex in Hualien, Taiwan that seeks to blur the line between natural landscape and the built environment. Prior to joining BIG, she drew on undergraduate degree in molecular biology during her time at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design to conduct research into new models of sustainability for the urban realm.
PARTNER – OLE ELKJAER-LARSEN
Ole Elkjær-Larsen joined BIG in 2003 and became partner in 2018. Ole has vast experience in project management and controlling of both large and small-scale projects. Ole has been key for the completion of BIG’s initial projects such as the Gammel Hellerup School multi-use hall and high school completed in 2014, as well as for the award winning 8 House in Ørestad, which he followed through to its completion in 2010. Ole supervised the completion of the re-programming and extension of the 30,000 m2 former warehouse Transitlager in Basel, as well as the TIRPITZ Museum in Blåvand that transforms and expands a German WWII bunker fortification into a groundbreaking cultural complex. Most recently, Ole was oversaw the completion of Glasir – Tórshavn College, a 19,200 m2 education centre on the Faroe Islands.
PARTNER – AGUSTIN PEREZ-TORRES
Agustin Perez-Torres first worked at BIG in Copenhagen from 2006 to 2008, during which he collaborated with Bjarke on a number of international projects, including the 8 House. He returned to BIG in 2011 as a Project Leader in the New York office where he led the team on the development of the Vancouver House as well as the Cité de la Musique à Genève Competition. Agustin became a Partner in 2018 and is currently leading various design competitions, serving as the Partner-in-Charge for the Redskins Stadium in D.C and the F.C Barcelona Camp Nou stadium competition. Prior to his design work, Agustin has worked as an architectural journalist and has assisted with major architectural exhibitions. Before joining BIG, Agustin worked for OMA in Rotterdam and Carme Pinos Studio in Barcelona.
PARTNER – MARTIN VOELKLE
Martin Voelkle joined BIG’s Copenhagen office in 2010 as a Project Designer for the recently completed Shenzhen Energy HQ. Martin moved to New York City in 2012 and became a key member of the project team for the 60,000 m2 mixed-use development Vancouver House in Canada. He was named Partner in 2018 and is currently leading various high profile projects, including 2 World Trade Center in New York City, the Smithsonian Institution Masterplan in Washington D.C. Prior to joining BIG, Martin worked as a Senior Architect at the Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) in Stuttgart, Germany. He led the design of a sports complex in the UAE and was Project Manager for two large-scale projects in Mexico. Martin also worked at Studio Scholz, a design firm in Stuttgart, Germany, and completed various interior design projects independently. Before studying architecture, he was originally trained as a carpenter.
PARTNER – LEON ROST
Leon Rost began his collaboration with Bjarke Ingels in 2005 at PLOT in Copenhagen. After completing architectural studies at California Polytechnic University, Leon has worked with renowned offices in Japan, Scandinavia, and Portugal, designing a variety of cultural, residential and master planning projects around the globe, including the New Oslo Central Station and the Ginza Swatch Building in Tokyo. Leon joined BIG with the launch of the New York office in 2011 and in 2018, he became a Partner. He has worked closely with all partners on some of BIG´s greatest projects, including the successfully completed Mountain residence and Helsingør Psychiatric Hospital in Denmark. He led the design for Grove at Grand Bay in Miami which was completed in 2016, and the winning competition designs for both the Kimball Art Center in Park City and the Tirana Cultural Center & Museum for Religious Harmony. Currently, Leon is leading the design of Google’s visionary masterplan and headquarter buildings, with over 3 million SF currently under construction.