Everybody everywhere wants to know what the next project from Bjarke Ingels will be, especially now that the built-world wunderkind has proven capable of unveiling things like "Zootopias" where the roles of humans and animals are reversed. Here it is, his next project: a sprawling mixed-used development that will turn part of the harbor of Denmark's second-largest city into a veritable Bjarkestravaganza.
Design Boom has the first-ever renderings of the "maverick masterbuilder's" design for a new public promenade along a stretch of waterfront in Aarhus, and what's interesting about the program is that it synthesizes a lot of elements his firm has explored with previously revealed projects. Sections are stepped and blocky like his Lego museum. There are amphitheater and pool areas with the swooping, Tostito-like pointedness of his design for Pier 6 in Brooklyn. Like his proposed residential utopia for Taiwan, it has the silhouette of a rolling landscape.
The mixed-use scheme, which is set to include some 200 residential units, and is scheduled to break ground in 2015, incorporates what Design Boom describes as "carefully programmed areas intended to encourage social interaction and activate the entirety of the esplanade." Also, there are pools.
Last month, Ingels' revised design for a museum addition was rejected outright by some super basic Utah ski town. He found comfort in his love of "promiscuous hybrids."
· Bjarke Ingels reveals plans for Aarhus Island Promenade [Design Boom]
· All Bjarke Ingels coverage [Curbed National]