Like a form of programmatic alchemy, we create architecture by mixing conventional ingredients such as living, leisure, working, parking and shopping. A pragmatic utopian architecture that steers clear of the petrifying pragmatism of boring boxes and the naïve utopian ideas of digital formalism. We believe that in order to deal with today’s challenges, architecture can profitably move into a field that has been largely unexplored. Not least due to the influence from multicultural exchange, global economical flows and communication technologies, that all together require new ways of architectural and urban organization.

BIG’s architecture emerges out of a careful analysis of how contemporary life constantly evolves and changes. The office is currently involved in a large number of projects throughout Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. The River Ring will be the first of many invitations for New Yorkers to dip their toes in the water.īIG is a Copenhagen, New York, London and Barcelona based group of architects, designers, urbanists, landscape professionals, interior and product designers, researchers and inventors. “The radical transformation of Copenhagen’s port into a swimmable extension of the public space that we helped pioneer two decades ago, now seems to be knocking at the door in Williamsburg and the entire East River. Rather than stopping at the hard edge of the old dock, Metropolitan avenue is split into a pedestrian loop extending all the way into the river, connecting the dots of the concrete caissons to form an urban archipelago of recreative islands while protecting a beach with tidal pools and wetlands,” said Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner & Creative Director.

“With the River Ring we close one of the last remaining gaps in the continuous transformation of the Williamsburg waterfront into a post-industrial urban park scape.

The milestone wraps up a breakneck land use review whereby the teams steered the project through the community board, borough president, City Planning Commission and City Council in just four months, which is “about as fast as it has ever been done.” As reported by The Real Deal, BIG and Two Trees’ River Ring project has officially received City approval to move forward into development.

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