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THEORY OF DESIGN
CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECT

• VARDA
• STUDIO 3 „A‟
AR.BJARKE BUNDGAARD INGELS
(Born: 2.10.1974)

Danish architect Bjarke is one of the most

inspirational architects of our time.

• Heads the Architectural practice at BIG (Bjarke Ingels

Group) which he founded in 2006.
• Ingels has won numerous architectural competitions.
BIG won a design contest after Hurricane Sandy for
improving Manhattan's flood resistance, and now
designing the new Two World Trade Center building.
• Manifesto entitled ‘Yes is More’ based on his works
and philosophies is in the format of a comic book.
• Strictly diagrammatic approach to generating
architectural form that is borrowed from his former
mentor Rem Koolhaas.
• Notable works: VIA 57 West in Manhattan, 8 House,
The Danish Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010, The VM
House, The Mountain, Lego towers, Escher tower, etc.
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
• By defining a clear conflict between ecology and
economy, people tend to say no to society and
focus on the limitations. Instead Ingels says it is
about finding new ways of ecological and
economical development, using instead of
reducing and maximizing rather than minimizing.

• With concepts like Hedonistic Sustainability,

Vertical Suburbia and Utopian Pragmatism,
the architectural pieces are related to
contradictions and paradoxes, presented in
fascinating stories.

• Telling people what they want to hear or showing

them what they want to see does not seem very
radical or innovative at all. The fact
that BIG succeeds in doing this has a lot to do with
their mix of thoughts from naturalist Charles
Darwin and philosopher Friederich Nietzsche
presented in the manifesto Yes Is More – a theory
of evolution.
 TYPE: Apartment
VM HOUSE SIZE: 25000 sq.m
LOCATION: Copenhagen, Denmark
YEAR: 2005

• The VM Houses are two residential blocks formed as the

letters V and M.
• The blocks are formed as such to allow for daylight,
privacy and views.
• All apartments have a double-height space to the north
and wide panoramic views to the south. The logic of the
diagonal slab utilized in the V house is broken down in
smaller portions for the M house.
• In this project, the typology of the Unite d' Habitation of
Le Corbusier is reinterpreted and improved; the central
corridors are short and receive light from both ends, like
bullet holes penetrating the building.
• The balconies stand like rows of shark teeth on the south
side. The two buildings placed face to face with each
other, seem to embrace their forms, the arms of the „M‟
want to hug the „V‟.
• The VM Houses offer more than 80 different apartment
types that are programmatically flexible and open to the
individual needs of contemporary life - a mosaic of
different life forms.

“Doubling the forms“, says Ingels, “opens up to the two channels, which ensures that the apartments, instead of looking at one another, are all oriented towards the landscape“.
 DANISH PAVILION, SHANGHAI EXPO 2010
• The pavilion is a big loop on which visitors ride
around on one of the 1,500 bikes available at the
entrance, a chance to experience the Danish urban
way.
• At the center of the pavilion there‟s a big pool with
fresh water from Copenhagen‟s harbor (one of the
most clean in the world), on which visitors can
even swim.
• At the center of the pool The Little Mermaid,
statue is placed that has become a symbol for
Denmark.
• The pavilion is a monolithic structure in white
painted steel which keeps it cool during
the Shanghai summer sun due to its heat-
reflecting characteristics.
• If sustainable designs are competitive it can not be
for purely moral or political reasons - they have to
be more attractive and desirable than the non-
sustainable alternative. The Danish Pavilion is a
way to consolidate a handful of real experiences of
how a sustainable city - such as Copenhagen - can
in fact increase the quality of life"
In Bjarke Ingels words “it is considerably more resource efficient moving The Little Mermaid to China, than moving 1.3 billion Chinese to Copenhagen”.
 MOUNTAIN DWELLINGS, COPENHAGEN
(2008)
• The program was 2/3
parking and 1/3 living.
What if the parking area
became the base upon
which to place terraced
housing.
• The Mountain Dwellings
appear as a suburban
neighbourhood of garden
homes flowing over a 10-
storey building -
suburban living with
urban density.
• The roof gardens consist of a terrace and a
garden with plants changing character
according to the changing seasons. The
building has a huge watering system which
maintains the roof gardens. The only thing
that separates the apartment and the garden
is a glass façade with sliding doors to provide
light and fresh air.

The Mountain Dwellings offer the best of two worlds: closeness to the hectic city life in the centre of Copenhagen, and the tranquility characteristic of suburban life.