BIG Week in London: Bjarke Ingels Launches New London Office
By Something CuratedBIG has opened a London office and hired former Rogers Stirk Harbour partner and Cheesegrater lead Andy Young as technical director.
Lisa Melvin, who was signed up from Heatherwick Studio, is the operations director.
The office, in King’s Cross, has 16 staff. Of the 13 listed on the firm’s website, most are architects or designers.
The move comes on the back of BIG winning – with Heatherwick Studio – the collaborative redesign of Google’s new HQ at King’s Cross. The office is also working on a Irvine Sellar (the developer of The Shard) scheme at Canada Water and the public realm for Battersea Power Station, as well as submitting a proposal for redesign of the Museum of London in Smithfield’s market.
Bjarke Ingels, who was made an international fellow of the RIBA last year, announced the news as he celebrated the opening of his first built project in the UK, the 2016 Serpentine Pavilion. Read Ike Ijeh’s verdict here.
BIG’s two other offices are in New York and Copenhagen, where it was founded in 2005.
Ingels said he had no plans to open any more offices for now. He opened the New York office on the back of the pyramid like West 57 scheme and the opportunities followed. London was likely to be the same, he has predicted.
Text by Tamara Akcay