Bjarke Bundgaard Ingels (born 2 October 1974) founded BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group – in 2005 after co-founding PLOT Architects with Julien de Smedt in 2001 and working at OIMA in 1998-2001. In less than 15 years, BIG has become one of the world leading architectural offices.
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Sustainable development and renewable energy are important to Ingels, which he refers to as “hedonistic sustainability”. He has said that “It’s not about what we give up to be sustainable, it’s about what we get. And that is a very attractive and marketable concept”.
There are many interesting books about BIG and their projects, I would suggest ‘Architecture and construction details – BIG, published by DETAIL in 2022.
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CopenHill (2019)
CopenHill opens as a new breed of waste-to-energy plant topped with a ski slope, hiking trail and climbing wall, embodying the notion of hedonistic sustainability while aligning with Copenhagen’s goal of becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral city by 2025. CopenHill is a 41,000m2 waste-to-energy plant with an urban recreation center and environmental education hub, turning social infrastructure into an architectural landmark.
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The internal volumes of the power plant are determined by the precise positioning and organization of its machinery in height order, creating an efficient, sloping rooftop fit for a 9,000m2 ski terrain. Beneath the slopes, whirring furnaces, steam, and turbines convert 440,000 tons of waste annually into enough clean energy to deliver electricity and district heating for 150,000 homes.
Photo: © Hufton+Crow
The necessities of the power plant to complete this task, from ventilation shafts to air-intakes, help create the varied topography of a mountain; a man-made landscape created in the encounter between the needs from below and the desires from above.
Photo: © Hufton+Crow
About the Author:
Bruno Dursin – Managing Director at Believe in Steel. Bruno has more than 30 years of experience in promoting steel & steel solutions. His clients benefit from his extensive network within the building industry.
