Dezeen promotion: Danish architect Bjarke Ingels will be the youngest architect ever to deliver the Annual Architecture Lecture at London's prestigious Royal Academy of Arts.
The founder of architecture firm BIG has been confirmed as the speaker for the 25th annual lecture at the Royal Academy on 13 July, as part of the art institution's Summer Exhibition.
The lecture will offer an overview of Ingels' design philosophy, recently encapsulated in his firm's latest book Hot to Cold, which features BIG's unique projects from around the world.
At 40, Ingels is the youngest architect to deliver a lecture in the history of the series, which has been running since 1991.
The list of previous participants reads like a who's who of contemporary architecture, with Norman Foster, Hans Hollein, Alvaro Siza, Peter Zumthor, Frank Gehry, Renzo Piano, Elizabeth Diller of Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, and Rem Koolhaas among the speakers. Last year's speaker was Pritzker Prize winning Spanish architect Rafael Moneo.
Ingels' work has captured public imagination partly due to his ability to easily communicate his unusual approach to combining form and function. Examples include the Amager Bakke Waste-to-Energy Plant in Copenhagen, which features a ski slope on its roof and a chimney that blows smoke rings to express energy consumption, and the West 57th housing development in New York with a central courtyard and a building that is pulled up at one corner to form a triangular tower he describes as a "court-scraper".
Dezeen is the media partner for this year's lecture, which will take place in the Royal Academy's Main Galleries from 6.45 – 8pm on Monday 13 July.
Tickets are £18 or £9 for concessions and are available from the Royal Academy website.
Here is more information from the Royal Academy:
The Royal Academy welcomes Danish architect, Bjarke Ingels, to deliver the 25th Annual Architecture Lecture in the unique setting of the Summer Exhibition.
Bjarke Ingels is one of the world's most exciting architects. His approach to design is to begin with the question, 'What is the biggest problem – what is the greatest potential?' He finds the answer through careful analysis of everything from local cultures and climates and ever-changing patterns of contemporary everyday life, to the ebbs and flows of the global economy. The result is an information-driven architecture, innovative in both programme and technology, which stands as the material counterpart to the rapidly evolving realities of the twenty-first-century digital economy and digital communication networks.
Ingels founded Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) in Copenhagen in 2005. The practice opened an office in New York in 2010 and in 2014 established BIG Ideas, a technology-driven special projects unit that explores new ideas in both the digital and material realms. BIG is currently working on major projects all over the world, such as the the Amager Bakke Waste-to-Energy Plant in Copenhagen, which includes its own ski-slope; the new headquarters for Google in California (with Thomas Heatherwick); West 57 in New York, and the redevelopment of London's Battersea Power Station. Notable built works include Copenhagen’s Mountain Dwellings (2008), the Danish pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai, and the Danish Maritime Museum in Helsingør (2013).
Tickets include drinks reception and private view of the Summer Exhibition.
About the Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Academy of Arts was founded by King George III in 1768. It has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to be a clear, strong voice for art and artists. Its public programme promotes the creation, enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate.