With 90+ categories and 300+ jurors, the Architizer A+Awards is the world’s definitive architectural awards program. In anticipation of the Awards Gala and Phaidon book launch on May 14, we are pleased to share the stories behind the winners of the 2015 Awards program — see all of them here.
BIG / Bjarke Ingels Group won the 2015 A+Awards, Jury Choice, for the Landscape & Planning: Masterplan Category with The Dryline [f.k.a. The BIG U]. This masterplan for a 10-mile ribbon of green space and resilient infrastructure is designed to protect the waterfront of Lower Manhattan from vulnerabilities exposed by Superstorm Sandy.
Your name: Kai-Uwe Bergmann
Firm name: BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group
Location: NYC/CPH
Education: B.S. in Arch, UVA; M. Arch, UCLA
© BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group, Rebuild by Design
When did you decide that you wanted to be an architect?
When I realized that my LEGO budget had exceeded my school lunch budget.
First architecture/design job:
The tree fort that was built in my best friend’s backyard.
Design hero and/or favorite building (and why):
Design hero: Felix Candela for creating the means to do what he designed long before the tools were at hand. Favorite project: J Mayer H’s Metropol Parasol in Sevilla for creating a new typology that intersects and enhances its surroundings.
What do you find exciting about architecture and design right now?
That architects are being asked to design power stations and resiliency infrastructure. Architects should expand the role we are to play in society.
© BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group, Rebuild by Design
Tell us something that people might not know about your A+Award submission:
That the Dryline is the lovechild of Robert Moses big infrastructure thinking married with Jane Jacob’s local neighborhood social sensitivity.
Which jurors do you find most compelling and why?
Craig Dykers of Snøhetta, due to him being just an all-around great “mensch,” and Olafur Eliasson for awakening our senses.
Among your fellow A+Award winners, what is/are your favorite(s)?
Thomas Heatherwick’s Bombay Sapphire Distillery — he is one of the most inventive architects today and it has been a pleasure working with him on the Google HQ — and, in our native Copenhagen, the Cyckelslangen by Dissing+Weitling Architects, as it brings back fun to urban infrastructure.
© BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group, Rebuild by Design
Other than your computer (or phone), what is your most important tool?
An airplane.
Outside of architecture, where do you look for inspiration?
Each and every BIGster I work with.
What is the most important quality in an architect?
Curiosity.
Who would be your dream client, and why?
The next one 😉
See all of the 2015 A+Award Winners here and all of the Winner Q+A’s here — and preorder the book from Phaidon here.