BIG architects, Bjarke Ingels Group studio, Danish buildings, DK design office, Practice info

BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, Copenhagen

Danish Architects Studio News – Denmark Architecture Practice Profile

post updated 29 March 2024

BIG Contact Details

BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group
Nørrebrogade 66D, 2nd floor
2200 Copenhagen N
Denmark
+45 72 21 72 27

Astana Project Office
Street #23 (between Street #36 and #37)
Astana 010000
Kazakhstan

BIG Faroe Islands Office
Børjakabrekka 9
100 Torshavn
Faroe Islands
+298 (26) 3180

General website: www.big.dk
General email: big@big.dk

BIG – About us

photograph : Ulrik Jantzen

Introduction
BIG is a Copenhagen-based group of architects, designers and thinkers operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research and development. BIG has created a reputation for completing buildings that are as programmatically and technically innovative as they are cost and resource conscious.

In our architectural production we demonstrate a high sensitivity to the particular demands of site context and programme. BIG’s completed projects include The Mountain (2008), the World Architecture Festival Housing Award winner, Helsingør Psychiatric Hospital (2006), the Maritime Youth House (2004) and Copenhagen’s Harbour Bath (2003), an urban space that transformed the area of Islands Brygge from a run down harbourfront to the recreational and social centre of the city.

BIG seeks to free architectural imagination from habitual thinking and standard typologies in order to deal with the constantly evolving challenges of contemporary life.

Completed projects in 2010 include the Danish Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai and the 8 House, a 62,000 m2 mixed-used project including 500 residential units overlooking the reserve landscape of Kalvebod Commons in Ørestaden. Current buildings under construction include the Danish Maritime Museum in Helsingør, Astana National Library in Kazakhstan, a new Educational Centre on the Faeroe Islands and Shenzhen Energy Mansion in China. Additionally, this Danish architecture studio was placed first in six international competitions in 2009 including the Tallinn Town Hall in Estonia and Kaufhaus Kanal in Germany.

Architectural Awards

2010
YIM Dam Book Award
XPO Exhibitor Magazine Awards I Best Exterior Design
8 Scandinavian Green Roof Award

2009
MTN Urban Land Institute I Award of Excellence
ANL Cityscape Dubai Award
MTN Chicago Athenaeum I International Architecture Award
MTN ULI Award for Excellence
LDK Good Green Design Award
M2 Scandinavian Green Roof Finalist
ZIRA Cityscape Abu Dhabi Finalist
MTN Mies Van Der Rohe Award I Honourable Mention
MTN MIPIM Award I Best Housing

2008
MTN Forum Aid Award I Best Nordic Architecture
MTN World Architecture Festival I Best Housing
BIG Wood Award (MTN + MAR)
SCA Chicago Athenaeum I International Architecture Award
SJA Contract World I Best Interior in Education – 2nd

2007
VM Mies Van Der Rohe Award I Honourable Mention
BAD IOC Best Public Recreational Facility I Honourable Mention

2006
VM Forum Award I Best Building In Scandinavia

2005
MAR Mies Van Der Rohe Award I Honourable Mention
PLOT The Royal Academy Of Arts Eckersberg Medal

2004
STA Golden Lion I Venice Biennale Best Concert House
MAR AR+D Award, Architectural Review, RIBA
MAR Copenhagen Award For Architecture
MAR European Architecture Award Luigi Cosenza
BAD European Prize For Urban Public Space
PLOT Copenhagen Collaboration Award
PLOT Scanorama Design Award

2002
PLOT Nykredits Architecture Prize

2001
BJARKE Henning Larsen’s Prize

BIG Projects

8-House

picture : Jens Lindhe
BIG Architects – 8 House
PROGRAMME: 540 Apartments, shops & office
SERVICE: Architecture, design and construction
COLLABORATORS: Moe & Brødsgaard, Klar
SIZE: 62,000 m2
COST: € 80.5m

LOCATION: Copenhagen, Denmark
STATUS: Completed 2010
PRIZES: Scandinavian Green Roof Award
CLIENT: Høpfner, Danish Oil Company, St. Frederikslund
CLIENT CONTACT INFO: Per Høpfner, CEO of Høpfner
E. per(at)hopfner.dk, T. +45 33 17 94 94, M. +45 20 46 16 22

the danish expo pavilion 2010

image : Iwan Baan
Danish Expo Pavilion 2010
PROGRAMME: Exhibition pavilion
SERVICE: Architecture, design and construction
COLLABORATORS: Arup Shanghai, Arup AGU, Tongji, 2+1, Jeppe Hein, Martin De Thurah, Peter Funch
SIZE: 2,800 m2
COST: € 12.8m

LOCATION: Shanghai, China
STATUS: Completed 2010
PRIZES: Exhibitor Magazine Award for Best Interior Design
CLIENT: Erhvervs- og byggestyrelsen

the mountain

photo : Boserup
VM Mountain Dwellings
PROGRAMME: 80 Apartments, parking & shops
SERVICE: Architecture, design and construction
COLLABORATORS: Jds, Moe & Brødsgaard, SLA
SIZE: 33,000 m2
COST: € 33m

LOCATION: Copenhagen, Denmark
STATUS: Completed 2008
PRIZES: WAF Best Housing Award, MIPIM Best Housing Award, Forum Aid Architecture Award, ULI Award of Excellence
CLIENT: Høpfner, Danish Oil Company
CLIENT CONTACT INFO: Per Høpfner, CEO of Høpfner
E. per(at)hopfner.dk, T. +45 33 17 94 94, M. +45 20 46 16 22

Architects Studio Staff Information

Office Organisation

BIG is a stock based corporation (A/S) with a board of directors consisting of Creative Director and Founding Partner Bjarke Ingels in collaboration with Christian Madsbjerg, Niels Koggersbøl, and CEO Sheela Maini Søgaard. This team determines BIG’s strategic long-term goals that are then carried out in the everyday management conducted by Sheela Maini Søgaard and Bjarke Ingels. In 2009 BIG extended the management to include five new Creative Partners: Andreas Klok Pedersen, David Zahle, Finn Nørkjær, Jakob Lange and Thomas Christoffersen and two new Associate Partners: Sheela Maini Søgaard and Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Director of Business Development.

With five Creative Partners and Bjarke Ingels in the Creative Director role, BIG will for each project assign a partner in charge to lead and guide the creative process to ensure a high quality of work. BIG employs 96 architects, construction architects and design assistants and the daily management of each commission follows either a flat or hierarchically structured team set-up according to the character of the project.

When required for a commission we will embed experts and specialists into the team to help us find the best solution. To facilitate the primary running of the company, BIG makes use of an in-house IT-department, a communication department, accounting, and administrative assistants.

Location: Nørrebrogade 66D, 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark, northern Europe