BIG, New York City

Bjarke Ingels Group is a Copenhagen, New York, London, and Barcelona based group of architects, designers, urbanists, landscape professionals, interior and product designers, researchers, and inventors. BIG is currently involved in a large number of projects spanning throughout Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East. The firm’s approach to architecture and design emerges from a calculated analysis of how contemporary life constantly changes and evolves.

“We believe that in order to deal with today’s challenges, architecture can profitably move into a field that has been largely unexplored.”

Recently, Bjarke Ingels Group moved its New York offices to Dumbo, Brooklyn. The 250+ person team has set up shop in a 50,000-square-foot studio located on the ninth floor of Two Trees Management’s Dumbo office building on 45 Main Street. Being one of Brooklyn’s most lively and growing neighborhoods, Dumbo was the perfect location for the new BIG offices. Designed in-house by BIG’s interiors team, the office space is characterized by its open floor plan that provides an ample amount of natural light and 360-degree views of the surrounding Brooklyn and Manhattan areas.

Previously located at 61 Broadway in Lower Manhattan, the new office in Brooklyn provides a fresh and contemporary environment with white interiors, concrete floors, glass partition walls, and glass doors that create a lively and connected workplace. By using a substantial amount of glass in the design BIG promotes collaboration between team members, creating a feeling of openness where each aspect of the firm flows freely into the next. The BIG interiors team focused on having materials repeat from one side of the office to the other to reinforce design continuity. For example, three unique steel finishes — chromatized steel, hot rolled steel and galvanized steel — are incorporated strategically throughout the space.

The new location provides a 9,500-square-foot private rooftop designed by James Corner Field Operations that can be used for conference and office meetings as well a full-size cafeteria. The office is illuminated by a grid of 150 pendants designed by Kibisi and a variety of fixtures from the “Alphabet of Light” series by BIG and Artemide. Aside from aesthetic improvements, the move has also upgraded the firm’s overall operational capacity. BIG’s move was able to quadruple its workshop in size.

The new office contains two large digital fabrication and assembly workshops, adding a new woodworking area.

Complementing the space’s contemporary elements and building materials, Bjarke Ingels Group’s New York office is outfitted with FSB 1075 Levers in 004 Satin Brass, 0105 Natural Aluminum, 0810 Black Aluminum, and 6204 Satin Stainless Steel finishes.

“The doors are intended to be concealed with minimal elegant & unobtrusive hardware.”
– Amir Mikhaeil (BIG Designer)

The curved and cylindrical form of the FSB 1075 Lever pairs perfectly with the soft-edged and rounded cues found throughout the studio. BIG offices in Brooklyn, NY has created a synergistic working environment by exercising complete design continuity.

Photos: Max Touhey