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UnleashingNew

Universes

Text Terri Peters

By reading science fiction,Bjarke Ingels learned howa single triggering idea cancreate a whole new world.

Ba Igs.

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ideas or theories o intelligence. Or maybe Ill

look or something new in the context o the

project, in the building technology or in the

media to be applied. As soon as I discover some

kind o innovation that has altered the game,

making the project is like pursuing the conse-

quence o these changes. At that point, I dont

have to come up with lots o new ideas; I just

have to work with the consequences o a single

innovation.

Another example is our New York project,

where we asked ourselves: What would happen

i we were to introduce a Copenhagen courtyard

into an American skyscraper? Once the question

is posed, the architecture unolds, and thatincludes its expression and everything we have to

solve, pursue and materialize. Its all the conse-

quence o a simple triggering idea.

the graphic novel that caught my attention was

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns [1986]. It is

inspired by Watchmen [1986], the work o Alan

Moore, but is more dynamic and dark. Both

Moebius and Moore have this amazing way o

telling stories by mixing all kinds o media. Our

book, Yes Is More, is clearly an homage to Frank

Miller. Ours has the American graphic-novel

ormat.

Aside rom science ction, graphic novels

and architecture books, have you been

inspired by books that might surprise me?

In my late 20s I started reading noniction,

in particular books about new ideas in man-agement theory. I was sharing an apartment with

a business psychologist, and we constantly talked

about these things. Emerging in the mid to late

90s was a discussion on contemporary man-

agement about not telling people what to do

but rather creating an environment, developing a

value base and establishing eedback loops that

would allow innovation to prosper. I also read

philosophy, like Nietzsche and Gilles Deleuze,

and I read Manuel De Landas A Thousand Years

of Nonlinear History[1997]. I was trying to get

my hands on all kinds o things that would help

me acquire tools or analysis and or guiding

processes o collaboration and experimentation.

Then I got ed up with stuing my head with

sel-help . . .

What about S,M,L,XL and the work o

OMA? You worked there or three years,

as a student and also ater graduating.

You took part in the Seattle Public Library

project. How did that come about?

Yes Is More ocuses on your unconven-

tional approach to architecture and

contains no plans, sections or renderings.

It is a graphic novel with a mix o media

that includes ilm stills, photographs,

drawings and Bjarke Ingels as hero. Are

you a an o comic books?

Until I entered architecture school, I was very

much into comic books. I wanted to be a graphic

novelist. At irst, my main interest was not the

storytelling but the drawings. As a kid who

loved to draw, I was totally into Spirou comics,

published in Belgium. The artist I liked best was

Jean Giraud, also known as Moebius. The John

Difool series was my avourite. The artist also did

set designs or The Fifth Element [Luc Besson,

1997]. This is very psychedelic sci-i stu. I also

like American comic-book artist Frank Miller.

Hes amous or Sin City[1991], o course, but

Its not true that wealth isalways at the expense ofpoverty

While spending my ourth year as a student in

Barcelona, I was digging through the library,

where I ound some weird little books o essays

by Sanord Kwinter, who compared OMAs work to

the dog-ghting skills o WWII pilot Chuck Yeager.

Ater that I read Delirious New York [1978] and

S,M,L,XL [1995]. Graphically, S,M,L,XL has been

massively infuential. But the lesson, I think, is

that theres a best way to tell every story. For

instance, in Yes Is More we deliberately omitted

plans, sections and the relentless publication o

acts and gures. Our ocus was on where the

ideas come rom and how they plug into society.

Your work is consistently cal

garde, a term that makes me

architecture moving against

stream, away rom the norm

think that your architecture

not against something. Wha

think?

Yes, you can be critical by being a

I believe that great art literature,

architecture, painting, whatever e

perception o the world and o lie.

the work o an impressionist painter

you an explosion o colour in a pond

Hirst installation that reveals the pre

death in the beautiul colours o phticals. Both make you aware o thing

aware o beore.

Youve done two books in the

years. Is a third in the pipelin

Were planning it now. We have som

rom the Graham Foundation, and t

be Bigamy, with You Can Have Both

line. This wont be a graphic novel. I

be organized like the human brain. [

emphasis.]

In two parts, like right brain

brain?

Exactly. We have a deal with both Bi

and Actar, and its going to be two h

is rational, analytic, measurable and

the other is intuitive, visual and poe

is a Swiss publisher and the other Sp

its easy to see which is which. The

bigamy also infuences its structure

will ocus on the aspects o our wor

the creative spark is a combination

are traditionally kept apart. Fusing a

mutually exclusive components to p

integrated whole is at the heart o a

recipe or both divine creation and

evolution: You merge two distinct in

mom and a dad, and get a third: the

Pt jab Gatt

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