The character arc of Bjarke Ingels
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 2 October 1974 in Copenhagen, to an engineer and a dentist. Between then and now sit an architecture course begun in 1993 in the hope of becoming a cartoonist, studies continued in Barcelona where he set up a first practice and won a first competition as a third-year student, a diploma in 1999, three years working for Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam, a practice co-founded in 2001, a Golden Lion at Venice in 2004, his own group founded in 2006 and grown to four hundred people, a move to New York in 2012, and a list of buildings that argue with what a building is for. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Bjarke Ingels?
He wanted to draw cartoons, and built cities instead.
His father is an engineer and his mother a dentist, and what he wanted to be was a cartoonist. He began studying architecture in 1993 at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, on the basis that it would improve his drawing. After several years the subject itself took hold. He continued his studies in Barcelona, where as a third-year student he set up his first practice and won his first competition, which is not a normal third year, and came back to Copenhagen for his diploma in 1999.
He spent three years from 1998 working for Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam, then returned to Copenhagen in 2001 to set up a practice called PLOT with a Belgian colleague. It got attention quickly: a Golden Lion at the Venice architecture biennale in 2004 for a music house proposal, an open-air harbour bath in Copenhagen in 2003, a sailing club and youth house, and in 2005 the award-winning VM Houses. He became well known at home for two housing complexes in the same district.
In 2006 he founded Bjarke Ingels Group, which had four hundred staff by 2015. The buildings are the argument: a housing complex shaped like a mountain, a Manhattan tower that is a courtyard block and a skyscraper at the same time, a park, headquarters for a technology company, and a waste-to-energy plant in Copenhagen with a ski slope and a climbing wall on its outside, which is the clearest statement of the idea that a building can do more than one job. He moved to New York in 2012, where his practice also won a competition to improve Manhattan's flood resistance after a hurricane. A newspaper named him innovator of the year for architecture in 2011 and a magazine named him one of the hundred most influential people in 2016.
The moments
Bjarke Ingels's timeline.
The 1970s
Born in Copenhagen
Everyday. An engineer and a dentist, and a son who wanted to draw.
The 1990s
A course for the drawing
Milestone, and it changed everything. He signed up for the wrong reason and found the right subject.
A practice as a student
Milestone, and it changed everything. Third year of a degree, and he had a practice and a win.
Three years with Koolhaas
Milestone, and it changed his direction. An apprenticeship with one of the most influential architects alive.
The 2000s
PLOT
Milestone, and it changed everything. Twenty seven, and running his own practice in his own city.
A harbour bath, and a youth house
Milestone. Swimming pools in a working harbour, which nobody had thought to put there.
A Golden Lion at thirty
Milestone, and it changed everything. The biggest prize at the biggest architecture exhibition, at thirty.
The VM Houses
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Two housing blocks, and the country knew his name.
Keep the partnership
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: start again alone, taken, or keep PLOT going. The new practice had four hundred staff by 2015 and buildings in Copenhagen, Manhattan and beyond.
Bjarke Ingels Group
Milestone, and it changed everything. One practice becomes another, and then four hundred people.
The 2010s
New York
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A Danish practice, winning the competition to defend Manhattan from the sea.
Named among the hundred
Milestone. Two lists in five years, and the buildings kept getting stranger.
A power plant you can ski down
Milestone, and it changed everything. A waste plant with a ski slope on the roof, and it works.
Copenhagen has a power station you can ski down and New York has the tower that should not work. What it has set moving is a change in what a client thinks to ask for: a building that also does something else is now an ordinary request, and it was not before somebody kept drawing them.
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His took an architecture course to get better at drawing cartoons and never left. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Bjarke Ingels: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What is Bjarke Ingels's character arc?
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What has Bjarke Ingels won?
Where does this timeline of Bjarke Ingels's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- Bjarke Ingels, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Venice Biennale of Architecture records, Golden Lion, 2004.
- Time magazine, the hundred most influential people, 2016.