“Great buildings blatantly express their true essence to the world.” The lauded Danish architect Bjarke Ingels here shares his personal story and his bold approach to architecture, which he feels should always be playful, generous and empathetic.
How does a building remain relevant? Ingels feels that if a building has qualities that go beyond executing its original intentions, it’s possible to repurpose it, and if it is used continuously, it can potentially last forever. As an example, the pyramids turned to ruin, because they weren’t in use anymore, whereas buildings on e.g. the Faeroe Islands have wooden buildings that have lasted half a millennium, as they have been in constant use and therefore been cared for. Architecture is “a framework for the life we live.” However, it shouldn't simply be a checklist, it has to be able to transform to accommodate different situations and enable people rather than restrict them. In continuation of this, Ingels argues that the “superpower” of contemporary architecture is empathy: “To accommodate people – different kinds of people – you have to be able to understand and empathize with them.”