Architect Bjarke Ingels on Artists Speaking on Behalf of the Future + His Design for a Resilient Manhattan
Date : 19 Sep 2019

Humanhattan 2050: A Vision for a Resilient Manhattan, Presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale

By Zoë Zellers
Coverage of the Venice Architecture Biennale Presented in Partnership with Architectural Record

"As an artist you actually have to be able to speak on behalf of the future, because there are so many reasons to not do a project," says the Danish-born architect Bjarke Ingels. He notes that from the very onset of developing architectural and urban planning projects, "there are so many no's" from planning to legal to economic issues, "that a project can die in its infancy."

"Therefore, as artists we have to be very precise and brave in terms of being champions of the future that hasn’t been born yet," says the founder and creative partner of the Bjarke Ingels Group aka BIG. Ingels, who was previously named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People, is behind a lengthy list of high-profile, sustainability-driven projects, and also serves as the chief architect of WeWork.

Steered by Ingels, BIG’s headline-grabbing projects include Google's redesigned Mountain View headquarters, 2 World Trade Center, the last of the set of towers at Ground Zero, VIA 57 West, a 35-floor residential skyscraper overlooking the Hudson River, and Denmark's LEGO House, which is constructed from colorful glazed terracotta designed to evoke oversized LEGO blocks.

https://youtu.be/2fMsoRsYsB0
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2fMsoRsYsB0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>