Bjarke Ingels, the architect heading the globally popular and successful Danish studio BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), which we featured several times, is the winner of the European Prize for Architecture, an award for architecture in 2010, which is annually conferred by the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies. As they state in the award’s press releases, Bjarke Ingels is one of the initiators of an interesting idea that promotes a scenario in which architecture will be taught in high schools in the near future, alongside math and other natural sciences. Likewise, he is among the most important young architects who changed the perception and working manner of young architects in his country. By successfully overcoming challenges and the unquestionable establishment, he also succeeded in encouraging the otherwise cold-mannered and reserved Danes to start thinking outside the box.
He remains a continuous role model and impetus, while his own and his office’s efforts at promoting Europe’s Green Architecture movement resulted in the realization of extraordinary works which stand out in a considerably important segment of sustainable architecture. Ingels is a constant source of inspiration for the up-and-coming generation of architects, to which in effect, he himself belongs, as he motivates them to push the boundaries of contemporary architecture further and further. At a mere 38 years old, this young Dane has an impressive career record and is constantly shaping an entirely new and different comprehension and contemporary approach in today’s European architectural practice. The most prominent works of Ingel’s studio BIG are hard to single out as they really boast phenomenal projects, both carried out and as theoretical competition studies. We featured the project with which Denmark presented itself at the Shanghai EXPO here, and we reported on their victorious projects for the sports center in Malmo as well as the national library in Kazakhstan, which should be completed shortly.
The European Architecture Prize was founded as a result of collaborative efforts between The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum, and will be conferred to Ingels at the “The City and The World: Madrid Symposium” manifestation held from November 4th to 7th.
* City hall / Tallinn, Estonia
* Mountain Dwellings / Copenhagen, Denmark
*People’s building / Shanghai, China
* 8 House / Copenhagen, Denmark
* Danish EXPO pavillion / Shanghai, China
* The new national library / Astana, Kazakhstan
* Tamayo Museum / Mexico City, Mexico
* The new educational centre / Torshavn, Faroe Islands
I.D.