BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group

Bjarke Ingels Group - BIG, founded by Bjarke Ingels in 2005, is one of the most cutting-edge studios in the definition of urban and horizons scenarios.

Involved in multiple projects all over the world, the works of the BIG are united by a visionary gaze and the search for innovative theories on contemporary society and its ways of living.

In its two offices in Copenhagen and New York, professionals from all over the world work together with the aim of promoting cultural exchange as a source of design richness.

The skills of the group range from architecture to design, from concept development to engineering.

The studio is committed in exploring new areas adjacent to architecture, to stimulate research and build different perspectives on the cities we will experience in the coming years. Digital representation technologies are not the purpose but a means to represent such perspectives.

Society, economy, and ecology are the themes that Bjarke Ingels and his team care most about and which are addressed in each of their projects.

Bjarke Ingels began his career working at Rem Koolhaas' OMA practice, later in 2001 he co-founded the PLOT (together with Julien De Smedt).

From an academic point of view, he has been a visiting professor at Rice University's School of Architecture and at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and a visiting professor at Harvard University.

In 2004 he received the Golden Lion at the Venice Bienniale for the Stavanger Concert House and the following year he was awarded the Forum AID Award for the VM houses.

The Mountain residential development, which brought Bjarke Ingels world fame, has received numerous awards, including the World Architecture Festival Housing Award, the Forum Aid Award and the MIPIM Residential Development Award.

CityWave

CityWave

The overall structure unites indoor and outdoor space in a form of weightless monumentality.

Project Specs

  • Location: Milan
  • Client: CityLife
  • Contractor: The Wave - (Colombo Costruzioni - CMB)
  • Status: ongoing
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Technology

CityWave

SYSTEMS

  • Unitised structurally silicone glazed system with TGU vision glazing with solar control coating, internal bulkhead, horizontal fascia in GRC/Fibrecement and opaque unit with GRC/Fibercement.
  • Capped Stick System with TGU vision glazing with solar control coating. (Interlayer area)
  • Toggle Stick System with fully height laminated glass mullion.
  • Toggle Stick System with DGU glazing with solar control coating.
  • External aluminium rainscreen cladding

Designed by

BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group Architects

CityWave project, created by the prestigious BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group studio, presents an innovative idea for workspaces that focus on quality of life and are capable of redefining the concept of sustainability.

Its iconic silhouette, which resembles a wave, its design focused on sustainability and the use of renewable energy, make CityWave a new generation office building. Thanks to innovative energy solutions, the building is exclusively powered by renewable sources, representing the first example of offices to overcome the concept of zero impact, with the aim of providing a positive contribution to the environment instead. The impressive project includes two buildings of different heights, connected by a suspended structure that frames the existing Three Towers of the CityLife skyline, creating a suggestive connection between the historic districts of Milan and contemporary architecture.

The roof emerging between the two buildings, 460 feet long and supported by a series of vertical support elements, thus creates an extensive shaded public space. The curvature of the connection structure between these two buildings is entirely covered with photovoltaic panels: with a surface area of approximately 118,400 sq feet, it constitutes the largest photovoltaic park in Milan and one of the largest in Italy.

Its overall surface area is approximately 678.200 sq ft, and the development extends over a length of over 656 feet; the West building consists of two underground floors, a basement floor and 21 floors above ground; the East building consists of two underground floors, a basement floor and eleven floors above ground.

For what concerns the building envelope, the adopted solution consists of a unitized facade system, composed of two repetitive modules that follow one another alternately: a double-chamber and triple-glazed unit and a spandrel unit featuring accessible balconies anchored to vertical steel elements.