BIG HQ by BIG | Bjarke Ingels Group Opens in Copenhagen

Located in Copenhagen’s Nordhavn neighborhood, the headquarters is a 27-meter-tall, seven-storey structure. It is designed using the studio’s LEAPP approach that integrates internal Landscape, Engineering, Architecture, Planning and Product Design teams.

The building is made from Uni-Green concrete, developed alongside Unicon, which has 25 per cent less CO2 than traditional concrete. It has a 140-meter-long spiral staircase wrapping around its facade, providing each floor with an outdoor terrace.

Inside, BIG designed the space to be as open as possible – moving external risers, the elevator and an egress staircase to the north edge of the building. A primary staircase, made from blackened steel, zig zags up through the centre connecting all seven floors.

Furniture was designed and made to be flexible, to allow the space planning to be changed around easily. In the center of the structure is a load-bearing stone column, made from six different types of rock, creating a totem pole-like feature.

Along the outside staircase a wind-tolerant, edible garden has been planted. Terraced planters are filled with trees, shrubs, perennials and herbs, used by kitchen staff when serving meals. On the rooftop terrace itself, the concrete is paved with wood from a local sawmill. The canteen area, used for lunch, also encourages spontaneous meetings and huddles.

Towards the bottom of the building, the landscape design studio transformed a former parking lot into a 1,500-square-metre park. BIG Landscape turned the space into a public park, inspired by the sandy beaches and coastal forests of Denmark.

Native forest trees including pines and oaks are planted on the park’s northen side, to break up the harsh winds. Towards the south, planting, rocks and woods have been included to support biodiversity and create a “soft surface” for play and relaxation. Hidden between the trees is a sculpture by American artist Benjamin Langholz. It consists of 40 stones arranged in a spiral.

Alongside BIG, Energy Machines, LM Byg and El-Team Vest also worked on the scheme. The building is completed to DGNB Gold standard and uses Uni-Green concrete, where a portion of the cement clinker is replaced with a calcined clay lime filler.

Inside, a geothermal energy system provides 84 percent of the building’s heat demand and 100 percent of its cooling demand. It integrates solar and geothermal energy systems which contributes to a 60 percent reliance on renewable energy.

The studio worked closely with partner and engineer Sophia Haviland. She said that the headquarters project was the first building BIG team had integrated all its own internal services.

“This building is a demonstration of what LEAPP is, we take it to the fullest for all our projects,” Haviland told. “It brings in the knowledge from all around the Big universe.”

“It shows that we are dedicated to collaboration even though we are a multidisciplinary practice, we are many in one, we are not one multidisciplinary office but a group of mini offices that is Big,” she added.

“We can work together and it becomes greater than the sum of its parts. That is what this house shows and I hope that our colleagues will inhabit it with this energy and elevate each other as we set each other up for success.”

The office building is one of the first completed examples using integrated method LEAPP and BIG’s first project using DGNB project standard. The headquarters is designed to achieve DGNB Diamond by the end of the year.

Founded in 2005 by architect Bjarke Ingels, the practice has offices in Copenhagen, New York, London, Barcelona, and Shenzhen.

Now one of world’s largest architecture studios, BIG has been responsible for major projects worldwide, including The Grove in Miami and Spiral 3 in New York.