FORMGIVING – An Architectural Future History from Big Bang to Singularity, DAC exhibition 2019
FORMGIVING – An Architectural Future History from Big Bang to Singularity
Architectural exhibition at Danish Architecture Center in Sjælland, Denmark design by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group Architects
18 June 2019
Architects: BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group Architects
Location: Danish Architecture Center (DAC), Copenhagen, Denmark
BIG GIVES FORM TO THE FUTURE AT THE DANISH ARCHITECTURE CENTER
Image by Rasmus Hjortshøj
FORMGIVING – An Architectural Future History from Big Bang to Singularity at DAC
FORMGIVING – An Architectural Future History from Big Bang to Singularity explores how the world around us has taken shape – and has been given shape – from the past to the present, with 71 BIG projects as glimpses of and gifts to our future. The show is on view until January 5, 2020.
The 1,350 m2 / 14,000 ft2 solo exhibition transforms the Danish Architecture Center (DAC) into a chronological passage from the past, to the present and the future. Beginning with the Big Bang, the oldest known point in time, the exhibition traverses the stairway of the BLOX building to lead visitors into the main gallery dedicated to the present: projects that currently populate the drawing boards, model workshops and databases across BIG’s studios worldwide and provide glimpses into our future.
“The Danish word for ‘design’ is ‘formgivning’ – which literally means, to give form to that which has not yet been given form. In other words: to give form to the future. And more specifically: to give form to the world that we would like to find ourselves living in – in the future. To create the sense of how the world around us has taken shape – and has been given form – from the past to the present – we have transformed the stairs of the Danish Architecture Center into a timeline counting down from the Big Bang to the present. Our projects provide glimpses of specific fragments of our future five, ten, and fifty years into the future. Rather than attempting to predict the future, we have the power to propose our future,” said Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner & Creative Director of BIG.
Image by Rasmus Hjortshøj
Returning to DAC since BIG’s first exhibition Yes is More launched in 2009, Kent Martinussen, CEO of the Danish Architecture Center states:
“BIG is one of the most successful and innovative architectural firms of our time, and the man behind it, Bjarke Ingels, is a master at pushing boundaries, creating innovative architecture and redefining the value of architecture. DAC’s newest exhibition gives visitors a unique glimpse into the master’s own workshop and explains the design philosophy that is changing our world. We say we’re only limited by our imaginations, but BIG’s imagination is limitless.”
Images by Rasmus Hjortshøj
At the core of BLOX, the main gallery hosts 71 projects grouped according to the Gifts they each give to their users, neighborhood, city, landscape and environment in the form of 10 strategies: Adapt, Show, Respond, Marry, Host, Lift, Bond, Productize, Grow and Pool.
Images by Rasmus Hjortshøj
Bjarke Ingels continues:
“With each project, we have the ability and power as Formgivers to go above and beyond what we have been asked to do and give the world a Gift that no one asked for – but now that it has been given – the world would be a lesser place without it and future generations will be better for it. By giving a Gift to the future with every project we do, each groundbreaking becomes a concrete step towards a world that is more like our dreams: Pragmatic Utopia.”
Images by Rasmus Hjortshøj
The “Golden Gallery” dedicated to LEGO allows children and adults to imagine, co-create and co-habit the world they want to live and play in. 25 BIG-designed buildings are recreated in LEGO bricks by AFoL (Adult Fans of LEGO) master builders from all over the world. Each model is paired with the building’s three-dimensional digital information model that embodies all technical aspects of the project – from the functional layouts, structure and circulation to the mechanical services and materials – into a single digital twin of the built reality. With these two data points – the ‘low-res’ physical abstractions of the LEGO models and the ‘high-res’ digital specifications – visitors see the complexity behind the playful simplicity.
Image by Rasmus Hjortshøj
The timeline continues as visitors descend the stairs from the present to the Singularity: the furthest hypothetical point in time predicted by futurist Ray Kurzweil. Each stair landing expands on how we are currently giving form to the future of Thinking, Sensing, Making and Moving. The evolution of Thinking dives into the emergence of artificial and collective intelligence; Sensing goes beyond perceiving reality to creating virtual and augmented reality through a new virtual design platform Hyperform, developed in collaboration with Squint/Opera and UNStudio; Making spans manual construction to robotic manufacturing; and Moving takes us from the movement of life forms across planet Earth to the future of interplanetary migration.
Image by Jesslyn Guntur
A catalogue exploring the notion of Formgiving will be published by Taschen by the end of the year.
Formgiving was made possible due to the generous support from Realdania, Industriens Fond, Beckett Fonden, Ole Kirk’s Fond and many of our sponsors:
“The urban development of the future needs architects who can walk unexpected paths. Bjarke Ingels turns huge, global challenges into limitless possibilities. He is a Danish world phenomenon who mobilizes sustainable urban development with spirit, creativity and imagination. BIG shows us that architecture can be unpretentious and down to earth. Realdania is delighted to support this exhibition, which demonstrates through play and learning that architecture creates the framework for our lives and therefore has an impact on us all,” said Jesper Nygård, CEO of Realdania.
FORMGIVING – An Architectural Future History from Big Bang to Singularity, Copenhagen – Project Information
FORMGIVING FACTS
Name: FORMGIVING – An Architectural Future History from Big Bang to Singularity
Size: 1,350 m2 / 14,000 ft2
Location: Danish Architecture Center, Copenhagen, Denmark
Foundations: Realdania, Industriens Fond, Beckett Fonden, Ole Kirk’s Fond
Sponsors: AGC Interpane, Architectural Titanium, Artemide, Brandfactory, DOW, Fogs Fond, Fritz Hansen, Gaggenau, Grohe, Hay, Holmris, Jansen, JUNG, Kvadrat, Laufen, LEGO Community Engagement Programme, Llama, Louis Poulsen, Microsoft, Edge Technologies, Petersen Tegl, POHL, Rockwool, McNeel, Sika, Swiss Embassy, S.Pellegrino, Squint/Opera, Taschen, Thyssenkrupp, Vitra, Walter P. Moore, Zahner, World of Facades, Zumtobel
BIG LEGO Builders: Anders Thuesen, Anders Horvath, Anne Mette Vestergaard, Are Heiseldal, Elisabeth Horte, Emil Lidé, Esben Kolind, Glenn Knoesgaard, Helgi Toftegaard, Jan Smed, Jessica Farrell, Lars Barstad, Lasse Vestergaard, René Askham, Rocco Buttliere, Trine Dalsgaard Jensen, Zio Chao, Tormod Askildsen, Tanja Friberg
Special thanks to: Jeffrey Inaba, Adam and Rebekah Neumann, Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy, Aaron Koblin, Chris Milk, Douglas Coupland, David Eagleman, Jeppe Hein, Scott Dadich, Andrew Zuckermann, Michel Rojkind, Didier Lootens, Solène Wolff, Jan Bunge, TED, all the BIG builders, Ruth Otero, Darwin Otero Ingels
DAC Team: Kent Martinussen, Martin Bang, Beate Bernhoft, Maibritt Borgen, Roger Brodzki, Jacob Bruun Hansen, Kennie Buchmann, Christine Clemmesen, Anthony Del Campo, Ricky Hansen, Yasmin Kokseby, Gökhan Kuvvetli, Maya Lahmy, Lykke Ley, Mette Mousten, Andreas Rasmussen, Kenneth Skovby, Arthur van der Zaag, Kim Vedsted, Jesper Værn
BIG – BJARKE INGELS GROUP
Partner-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Andreas Klok Pedersen
Project Leader: Gabrielle Nadeau
Formgiving Team: Mattia Di Carlo, Matteo Pavanello, Dimitrie Grigorescu, Scott Moon, Paula Madrid, Andre Zanolla, Amanda Cunha, Dominiq Oti, Edvard Connor Burnett, Ella Murphy, Francisca Hamilton, Irie Meree, Marija Lukoseviciute, Pernille Kinch Andersen, Ricardo Oliveira, Robert Birchmaier, Victor Moegreen, Daria Pahhota, Jesslyn Guntur, James Caruso, Jiyoon Lee, Carmelo Gagliano, Bernardo Schuhmacher, Izabella Banas, Mads Primdahl Rokkjær, Norain Chang, Davide Pellegrini, Peter Sepassi, Ada Gulyamdzhis, Qamelliah Nassir, Tiffany Wong, Elnaz Rafati, Mai Lee, Ana Maria Vindfeldt, Walid Bhatt, January Chen, Søren Dam Mortensen, Cecilie Søs Brandt-Olsen, Mantas Povilaika, Giovanni Simioni, Jae Min Seo, Ombretta Colangelo, Agnieszka Majkowska, Nick Flutter, Adam Poole, Jan Leenknegt, Tobias Hjortdal, Alexander Jacobson, Tore Banke, Jens Majdal Kaarsholm, Cheng-Huang Lin, Kristoffer Negendahl, Anders Holden Deleuran, Duncan Horswill, Andy Coward, John Harding, Leah Peschel, Sarah Amick, Jakob Sand, Brian Yang, Cat Huang, Jakob Lange
FORMGIVING – An Architectural Future History from Big Bang to Singularityin Copenhagen images / information received 070619
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
26 July 2019
Danish Architecture Center Exhibition by BIG
photos © Harriet Lomholt-Welch
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