{"64390":{"#nid":"64390","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Students Welcome Bjarke Ingels\u0027 \u0027Yes is More\u0027 Message","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003Earticle contributed by Shota Vashakmadze\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOn Wednesday February 16, Bjarke Ingels, of the eponymous BIG Architects, spoke to an eager and overflowing audience in the Reisch-Pierce Family Auditorium.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAs he prepared his lecture, a glimpse of his computer revealed the emblazoned logotype of \u201cYes Is More,\u201d the mantra from his archi-comic monograph and a silent premonition of the evening\u2019s refrain. He traced the etymology of this phrase through Mies, Venturi, Philip Johnson, and Barack Obama, recognizing them while slyly situating himself in their company. This playful, yet absolute confidence in his work swayed the talk imperceptibly from cynicism to sincerity, leaving the audience to question when, if ever, the shift had occurred. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn a suit and tennis shoes, he explained ideas of pragmatic utopianism, architectural alchemy, and hedonistic sustainability. Ideas of contradiction and resolution, they involve the interface of opposites and drive his firm\u2019s stated existence \u0022at the fertile overlap of the pragmatic and avant-garde.\u0022 By reconciling the \u0022boring boxes of high standard\u0022 with experimental promiscuity and creativity, he spoke of arriving at\u0026nbsp; sustainability without puritanism, and ultimately an architecture that doesn\u2019t exist as a contradiction to its past. \u0022We\u2019re not interested in revolution,\u0022 he said, \u0022but evolution.\u0022\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EReferencing a number of his recent projects, he concretized these ideas with his firm\u2019s characteristically impeccable diagrams, renderings, and animations. He talked about an angled mirror on the ceiling of a town hall, forming a \u201cdemocratic periscope,\u201d and uniting the politicians with their constituents. He mentioned a library in Kazakhstan that resolved its program into a mobius strip, an apartment building that creates its own mountain views, and a recycling plant whose roof doubles as a ski resort. In such simple, yet grand gestures, his architecture rationally composes the program and responds to its requirements, while simultaneously invoking a spark of something ingenious and playful.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe iconic nature of his designs, to some degree an artifact of his design process and in some cases political statement, betray an optimistic ambition in the face of economic and creative pessimism\u2013a message received with enthusiasm by the Georgia Tech audience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EShota Vashakmadze is a sophomore architecture major from Atlanta. Reach him at \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:shota.vashakmadze@gmail.com\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Esvashakmadze3@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFounder of Copenhagen-based Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) delivers healthy dose of optimism\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27213","created_gmt":"2011-02-21 14:48:56","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:08:10","author":"Teri Nagel","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-02-21T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2011-02-21T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"63243":{"id":"63243","type":"image","title":"Bjarke Ingels","body":null,"created":"1449176668","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:04:28","changed":"1475894554","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:34","alt":"Bjarke Ingels","file":{"fid":"191789","name":"Bjarke_Ingels_Image_by_Jakob_Glatt_02.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Bjarke_Ingels_Image_by_Jakob_Glatt_02_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/Bjarke_Ingels_Image_by_Jakob_Glatt_02_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3169035,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/Bjarke_Ingels_Image_by_Jakob_Glatt_02_0.jpg?itok=vxQad5Vu"}},"64398":{"id":"64398","type":"image","title":"Bjarke Ingels Group Mountain Dwellings","body":null,"created":"1449176735","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:05:35","changed":"1475894567","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:47","alt":"Bjarke Ingels Group Mountain Dwellings","file":{"fid":"191997","name":"BIG.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/BIG_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/BIG_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":93966,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/BIG_0.jpg?itok=Rt3FwH4M"}}},"media_ids":["63243","64398"],"groups":[{"id":"1221","name":"College of Design"}],"categories":[{"id":"137","name":"Architecture"},{"id":"133","name":"Special Events and Guest Speakers"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"175","name":"Architecture"},{"id":"11983","name":"BIG"},{"id":"11984","name":"BIG Architects"},{"id":"11499","name":"bjarke ingels"},{"id":"167177","name":"School of Architecture"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:teri.nagel@coa.gatech.edu\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ETeri Nagel\u003C\/a\u003E, Georgia Tech College of Architecture\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-385-2156\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}