‘Starchitect’ Ingels to be profiled in new Netflix series on designers
Danish architect Bjarke Ingels will appear in a new documentary series on Netflix that aims to shine a spotlight on some of the international design scene’s leading luminaries.
Abstract: The Art of Design starts on 10 February and will explore the ways in which creativity influences everyday life – by following eight innovators operating in different fields.
Outspoken Ingels, the founder of Danish practice BIG, has redrawn notions of scale and tradition with his provocative and revolutionary work. Known for is forthright views, he’s been profiled by Vogue, Rolling Stone and the New York Times and his TED Talks have been viewed online more than two million times.
In his native Copenhagen, Ingels created the VM Houses – affordable housing structures that encourage a sense of community while dazzling the eye – and a ski slope/public park that sits on top of a power plant that burns ‘clean’ fuel, both of which appear in the programme.
Other projects of his include the long-anticipated 2 World Trade Center in New York, London’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion; Vancouver House – a dramatic cyclone-shaped residential tower in Canada, Google’s headquarters in California and the soon-to-be-completed Lego House in Denmark.
“Infrastructure can have positive environmental side effects, which is where poetry and possibility come in,” Ingels said. A sense of effortlessness anchors these eclectic designs, which Ingels says “seem to emerge from a dream world.”
The series was produced for Netflix by Wired editor-in-chief Scott Dadich. Interior designer Ilse Crawford will also appear, as will illustrator Christoph Niemann, Nike sneaker supremo Tinker Hatfield and set designer Es Devlin.