BIG's hot to cold exhibition set to open at national building museum

BIG’s hot to cold exhibition set to open at the national building museum
(above) VM houses in copenhagen / image by johan fowelin
all images courtesy of the national building museum

an exhibition documenting the work and design processes of global architecture office bjarke ingels group (BIG) is set to open at the national building museum in washington, DC. the display sees BIG return to the institution’s grand hall, where last summer a vast indoor maze attracted over 50,000 visitors.

titled ‘hot to cold: an odyssey of architectural adaptation’, the exhibition takes visitors from the warmest to the coolest parts of our planet and explores how BIG’s solutions are shaped by their specific cultural and climatic contexts. more than 60 three-dimensional models will be suspended from the second-floor balconies of the museum’s historic hall in an unprecedented use of this public space.

amager bakke waste to energy plant in copenhagen
image by BIG & mir
see more of the project on designboom here

the presentation premieres twenty of the studio’s latest projects interpreted through iwan baan‘s photography, and films by ila bêka and louise lemoine, as well as the grammy award-winning graphic artist stefan sagmeister’s design for the accompanying catalog by taschen.

‘hot to cold’ opens on january 24, 2015 and remains on view through august 30, 2015.

danish maritime museum in helsingør
image by rasmus hjortshoj
see more of the project on designboom here

‘the city is an ongoing project of constant creation and re-creation through refurbishment, modification, adaptation,’ explains bjarke ingels. ‘it is all part of a never-ending journey towards crafting the world of our dreams. as life evolves, so must the world around it. and as our lives evolve, so will our dreams. architecture is the art of laying the foundations that will serve as the stepping-stone for the next big leap. hot to cold at the national building museum sums up most of our experiments and discoveries from the past decade—we look forward to taking the visitors on this journey of exploration.‘

BIG U proposal for manhattan
image by BIG
see more of the project on designboom here

‘what’s so special about hot to cold is that BIG has perceived the national building museum more as a site for a project, rather than as a venue for an exhibition‘, explains curator susan piedmont-palladino. ‘that means that the sunlight, the sounds, and the sights of the great hall will all be part of the context of the display, just as they are for a building in the city. BIG has a very distinctive voice, and the experience our visitors will have will be very direct, as if the architect is talking, telling stories directly to them.‘

BIG’s maze at the national building museum in washington DC
image by kevin allen
see more of the project on designboom here