Bjarke Ingels, the founder and director of the (BIG) Bjarke Ingel Studios at Copenhagen, Denmark is one of the world’s most advanced studios, sharing a vision and interest in the innovative concepts about contemporary society and lifestyles. It is well known for its two remarkable housing projects VM Houses and Mountain Dwellings at Copenhagen. According to Bjarke Ingels, architects are more than just designers.
In today’s contemporary world, an architect has his expanded role that can add value to society. He believes that architects need to become designers of ecosystems channeling the flow of people and resources through cities. One of his thought-provoking statements – “If we can Change the Climate of the World by Accident, Imagine What we can Achieve by Trying” has changed the way of thinking among many that strongly puts forth a message of taking charge and bringing a big change into this world. His thoughts on the terms pragmatism and utopia which work amazingly when combined and using it as a power to imagine every new project concept turns a part of fiction into factual reality.
Understanding the terms sustainable cities being rightly related to the quality and way of living. A sustainable city is where an inhabitant enjoys his life and at the same time does not harm the ecosystem unlike a person stuck in a traffic jam or complaining about the air quality due to the rising pollution levels in the city. BIG constantly conducts experiments on how to best inhabit our cities by involving the public as essential decision-makers of the city. Showcasing his multitudinous works through these years, Bjarke Ingels throws light on the importance of public participation in architecture and social infrastructure creating a sense of belonging among its stakeholders. With most of their projects being commissioned each one of them has an intense relationship to the public realm such as the Mountain Dwelling project at Copenhagen linking the urban fabric to the residential project providing a sense of social encounters and stunning views at the same time.
For Ingels, architecture is not about creating a preconceived idea about a building’s use but it is more to do with the actual use it would make in the world, creating a community surrounding it, and how it would perform differently in the urban scenario. Such comprehensive informed information will build an integrated setup of a neighborhood.
Looking at the homogenous contemporary culture at Copenhagen, the design process is always about tapping into the cultural diversity of the local neighborhood by assigning authorship to its citizens which is bound to accelerate a sense of ownership of the space they perceive and integrate it into the society. Bjarke Ingels also talks about the developing social infrastructure from past to present where dried mills or unused abandoned spaces become a part of socially interactive spaces like parks or museums when developed over time.
The newly built waste to energy plant built on the industrial island in the Port of Copenhagen takes innovation a step further as it filters 99.99 percent of particles and emits no pollutants. This technology innovation allows showing the world, benefits technology can do- not just for the environment but also for its inhabitants. The power plant is proof of a human capacity to do something about climate change. There lies an expanded role where cities become pollution free thus moving towards a sustainable lifestyle.
The evolution of the city and a man is inevitable and so is architecture, and the way of designing spaces shall also evolve. Learnings from the existing built architecture right from its functionality to aesthetics need to be addressed and incorporated in future design concepts. Needless to say, the term sustainable city can only be achieved through the collaborative involvement of users, stakeholders, and architects keeping in mind the realities of the existing mindset. It is our duty and responsibility to expand our horizons by looking at a greater context of the site, and the effect the built environment would create in the coming years.
Despite Bjarke Ingels’ visionary thought and global success, simplicity and groundedness towards society might be the source that helped him achieve greater in life. This profession allows us to build the world of our dreams but our role is not limited to just design but creating a whole lifestyle and community, integrating to the existing built nature for years together.
The understandings from the Danish architect portray that the expanded role is that an architect must think beyond the creations of buildings and embrace the challenge of designing participatory ecosystems rather than just designing for its specific use. Users seem to be the best experts for perceiving their own space according to the function they want and we as architects make it possible in reality to establish a social and cultural community in itself. There must be a constant effort on experimenting with the best possibility of creating a better environment for the user rather than just designing beautiful facades.
