taschen publishes BIG’s third book — formgiving. an architectural future history

if someone knows that the future is created with fragments of the past, it is renowned danish architect bjarke ingels.

juliana neira December 20, 2020 3 min

the third installment of BIG’s taschen’s trilogy is here, just in time for the holidays. titled formgiving. an architectural future history, the book takes readers on a chronological journey of bjarke ingels group’s architecture and philosophy — from the big bang, to life as we know it today and the possibilities of the future.

taschen publishes BIG's third book — formgiving. an architectural future history
kistefos museum, jevnaker, norway, 2019
image © kim erlandsen
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if someone knows that the future is created with fragments of the past, it is renowned danish architect bjarke ingels. rooted in the danish world for design, formgiving literally means to give something a form that does not yet have a form, or in other words, to shape the future. beginning in the past, the first chapters of the book explore the built world through six trajectories — making, sensing, sustaining, thinking, healing and moving — that set points for architects and designers as they create the future.

taschen publishes BIG's third book — formgiving. an architectural future history
copenhill by BIG, copenhagen, denmark, 2019
image © aldo amoreti
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‘to feel that we have license to imagine a future different from today, all we have to do is look back ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years, to realize how radically different things were then than they are today,’ bjarke ingels comments. ‘the same will be true if we can look ahead with the same clarity of vision. as we tackle the complexities of everyday life, these six evolutionary trajectories allow us to place a firm gaze on the horizon of time to prevent us from being derailed by the random distractions of today. since we know from our past that our future is bound to be different from our present, rather than waiting for it to take shape on its own, we have the power to give it form.’

taschen publishes BIG's third book — formgiving. an architectural future history
79 & park by BIG, stockholm, sweden, 2018
image © laurian ghinitoiu
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the book continues with the present, where more than 65 projects document BIG’s work around the world. ‘with each project, we have the ability and power as formgivers to go above and beyond what we have been asked to do and give the world a gift that no one asked for – but now that it has been given – the world would be a lesser place without it and future generations will be better for it. by giving a gift to the future with every project we do, each groundbreaking becomes a concrete step towards a world that is more like our dreams: pragmatic utopia.’

taschen publishes BIG's third book — formgiving. an architectural future history
musée atelier audemars piguet by BIG, le brassus, switzerland, 2020
image © iwan baan
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finally, the future chapter highlights the importance of collaboration between different disciplines in order to address the complexity of the challenges faced by the built environment. formgiving shares insights into developments that reach five, ten, or fifty years into the future, and urges architects to navigate fields as diverse as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, urban metabolism, longevity, robotic enhancement, and interplanetary migration. the book concludes with bjarke ingels’ remark on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

taschen publishes BIG's third book — formgiving. an architectural future history
vancouver house by BIG, canada, 2020
image © ema pete
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taschen publishes BIG's third book — formgiving. an architectural future history - 1
formgiving, exhibition by BIG at the danish architecture center, copenhagen, denmark, 2019–2020
image © rasmus hjortshoj
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