Bjarke Bundgaard Ingels (Danish pronunciation: [ˈpjɑːkə ˈpɔnkɒ ˈe̝ŋˀl̩s]; born October 2, 1974) is a Danish architect and the founder and creative partner of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).
In Denmark, Ingels became famous for designing two housing complexes in Ørestad: VM Houses and Mountain Dwellings. In 2006, he started Bjarke Ingels Group, which had 400 employees by 2015. Notable projects include the 8 House housing complex, VIA 57 West in Manhattan, the Google North Bayshore headquarters (designed with Thomas Heatherwick), Superkilen park, and the Amager Resource Center (ARC) waste-to-energy plant. The ARC building has a ski slope and climbing wall on its outside.
Since 2009, Ingels has won many architectural competitions. In 2012, he moved to New York City, where BIG won a design contest after Hurricane Sandy to help protect Manhattan from flooding.
In 2011, The Wall Street Journal named Ingels Innovator of the Year for architecture. In 2016, Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 Most Influential People.
Early life and background
Ingels was born in Copenhagen in 1974. His father works as an engineer, and his mother is a dentist. He wanted to become a cartoonist, so he started studying architecture in 1993 at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, believing it would help him improve his drawing skills. After several years, he developed a real interest in architecture. He continued his education at the Escola Tècnica Superior d'Arquitectura in Barcelona and returned to Copenhagen to earn his diploma in 1999. While studying in Barcelona as a third-year student, he started his first job and won his first competition.
In addition to his work as an architect, Ingels has taught as a visiting professor at the Rice University School of Architecture, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, and most recently, the Yale School of Architecture.
Career
From 1998 to 2001, Ingels worked for Rem Koolhaas at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam. In 2001, he returned to Copenhagen to start an architectural firm called PLOT with Julien de Smedt, a colleague from Belgium. PLOT gained attention for their creative designs. In 2004, they won a Golden Lion award at the Venice Biennale of Architecture for a proposal to build a new music house in Stavanger, Norway.
In 2003, PLOT completed a series of five open-air swimming pools called Islands Brygge Harbour Bath in Copenhagen. The pools included special areas for children. They also built the Maritime Youth House, a sailing club and youth center in Sundby Harbour, Copenhagen.
PLOT’s first major project was the VM Houses in Ørestad, Copenhagen, completed in 2005. Inspired by the design of Le Corbusier’s Unité d'Habitation, the VM Houses were shaped like the letters V and M from above. The M House, with 95 apartments, was finished in 2004, and the V House, with 114 apartments, in 2005. The buildings focused on natural light, privacy, and views. Each apartment had a diagonal view of the surrounding fields, and the hallways were short and bright. The complex had about 80 different apartment types to meet various needs. The design won the Forum AID Award for the best building in Scandinavia in 2006. Ingels lived in the VM Houses until 2008, when he moved to the Mountain Dwellings, a nearby building.
In 2005, Ingels also designed the Helsingør Psychiatric Hospital in Helsingør. The hospital was shaped like a snowflake, and each room had a view of either a lake or nearby hills.
After PLOT ended in late 2005, Ingels started his own company, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), in January 2006. By 2016, BIG had 400 employees.
BIG worked on the Mountain Dwellings, a housing project in Ørestad, Copenhagen. The building combined 10,000 square meters of housing with 20,000 square meters of parking space, themed around a mountain. The apartments were built on the sloping roof of the parking garage, creating an artificial "mountainside" with terraces for each apartment. The parking garage had 480 car spots, 16-meter-high ceilings, and aluminum panels painted in bright colors inspired by Danish designer Verner Panton. The northern and western sides of the garage featured a large mural of Himalayan peaks. Completed in 2008, the Mountain Dwellings won awards for housing design.
In 2006, BIG began work on the 8 House, a large housing and retail project in Ørestad, commissioned by several Danish companies. Completed in 2010, the 10-story building had 61,000 square meters of housing, 10,000 square meters of retail and offices, and a green roof that won an award in 2010. The building’s shape formed the number 8 around two courtyards and offered views of nearby fields. It also won awards for residential design.
In 2007, Ingels exhibited at an art and architecture event in New York City and designed the Danish Maritime Museum in Helsingør. The museum is located near the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Kronborg Castle. The museum is partly underground and uses natural light. It was built on a reinforced concrete dry dock and includes a ship-like interior with a sloped floor. The museum will host exhibitions and events and is expected to open in 2013.
Ingels designed a pavilion for Denmark’s World Expo 2010 in Shanghai. The pavilion had a spiral bicycle path and featured a statue of The Little Mermaid in a water pool.
In 2009, Ingels designed the National Library of Kazakhstan in Astana, which resembles a "giant metallic doughnut." BIG also worked on the Tilting Building in Guiyang, China, a leaning tower with six facades. Other projects included the city hall in Tallinn, Estonia, and the Faroe Islands Education Centre, which serves 1,200 students and 300 teachers.
In 2010, Ingels was listed by Fast Company as one of the 100 most creative people in business. BIG’s projects expanded internationally, including hotels in Norway, a museum in Mexico City, and renovations of oil industry buildings.
Other projects
In 2009, Ingels became a co-founder of the KiBiSi design group, along with Jens Martin Skibsted and Lars Larsen. The company specializes in urban mobility, architectural lighting, and personal electronics. It creates bicycles, furniture, household items, and aircraft, becoming one of Scandinavia’s most influential design groups. KiBiSi designed the furniture for Ingels’ Danish Pavilion at EXPO 2010.
Ingels’ first book, Yes Is More: An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution, included 30 projects from his work. He designed the book as a comic, believing it was the best way to share stories about architecture. He later noted that the format sometimes made his projects seem cartoonish. A follow-up book, Hot to Cold: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptation, explored 60 case studies through a climatic lens, examining how people live in different climates around the world. The book was created by Grammy Award-winning designer Stefan Sagmeister and was displayed in an exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. The book included projects such as VIA (West 57th), Amager Bakke, 8 House, Gammel Hellerup High School, Superkilen, The Lego House, and the Danish Maritime Museum, among others.
In 2009, Ingels spoke at a TED event in Oxford, UK. He presented a case study titled “Hedonistic sustainability” during a workshop on managing complexity at the 3rd International Holcim Forum 2010 in Mexico City. He also served on the Holcim Awards regional jury for Europe in 2011.
In 2015, a division of the Kohler Company, Kallista, released a new line of bath and kitchen products designed by Ingels. Named “taper,” the fixtures reflected minimalist and mid-century Danish design.
In 2016, he gave a keynote speech at the Aarhus Symposium leadership conference, discussing the role of creativity and empowerment in leadership.
Ingels appeared in My Playground, a documentary film by Kaspar Astrup Schröder that explores parkour and freerunning. Much of the film’s action took place on and around BIG projects.
He also participated in Genre de Vie, a documentary about bicycles, cities, and personal awareness. The film examined how people shape and are shaped by the spaces they use, highlighting how bicycles influence urban life.
Ingels was featured in the first season of the Netflix docu-series Abstract: The Art of Design.
Design philosophy
Architecture is often seen as being stuck between two extremes: one is overly optimistic and the other is overly practical. There is a third way: a balance between practical and optimistic design.
In 2009, The Architectural Review described Bjarke Ingels and his firm, BIG, as moving away from traditional Danish modernism to explore ideas about large-scale, imaginative designs. BIG’s work shows a hopeful future where art, architecture, city planning, and nature work together in a new balance. While their ideas sound bold, they address serious issues like climate change, community life, and designing for a future without reliance on oil. The Netherlands Architecture Institute called Ingels part of a new group of architects who use smart thinking, creative experiments, a sense of responsibility, and humor in their work.
In 2010, Ingels explained his design philosophy. He said architecture is the art of turning society’s ideas—like social, cultural, economic, and political aspects—into real buildings. He believes architecture should grow from the world’s growing focus on the future, especially as people discuss climate change. He also said buildings should work with their local environment and climate, using natural resources to create spaces that support human life.
Luke Butcher noted that Ingels uses ideas that mix modern and postmodern styles, blending imagination with practicality. He focuses on sustainable development and renewable energy, calling this approach “hedonistic sustainability.” He believes sustainability is about the benefits it brings, not the sacrifices it requires. He also criticized a situation in Copenhagen where older, wealthy people moved from the suburbs to the city to visit cultural places, which he called “suburban biopsy.”
In 2014, Ingels released a video called Worldcraft as part of a storytelling event. He introduced the idea of creating architecture that turns imaginary ideas into real spaces. He used examples like the video game Minecraft to show how technology can help people shape their environments. This idea builds on his earlier work, including his book Yes Is More. In the video and his second book, Hot to Cold: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptation, he said: “Fictional worlds give people tools to change their surroundings. This is what architecture should be.” He added, “Architecture must become Worldcraft—the art of building our world, where knowledge and technology help us turn imaginary ideas into real spaces. To turn fiction into fact.”
Notable projects
- 2007 – BIG City, at Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York City
- 2009 – Yes Is More, Danish Architecture Centre, Copenhagen
- 2010 – Yes Is More, CAPC, Bordeaux; and Wechselraum, Stuttgart
- 2015 – Hot to Cold: An Odyssey of Architectural Adaptation, National Building Museum, Washington, D.C.
- 2019–2020 – BIG Presents Formgiving, Danish Architecture Centre, Copenhagen