It has become a misconceived perception that architects need to be good at math.1 However, Architects, typically, only need to know basic arithmetic. The following is a continuing series of Architect Arithmetic.
This week’s Architect Arithmetic is in honor of Bjarke Ingels: Skate Parkitect.
The majority of Bjarke’s buildings either resemble a hill or a skate park. Therefore, I could probably just do the same graphic for every Bjarke Ingels’ building: Hill + Concrete = Building.
However, this probably invalidates the plethora of hours and thought put into their projects. I do not know how narcissistic Bjarke is, but I highly doubt he strolls about the Denmark countryside finding ideal hills to cover in cement.2 Therefore, I will attempt to provide other Architect Arithmetic examples; albeit slightly contrived.3
Footnotes:
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1 Revit already is a $6000 calculator.
2 Then again, Bjarke might be a huge dick, even his own website is BIG.DK
3 Although, hopefully not more contrived than some of BIG’s projects.
That is so ridiculous, it takes a lot of guts and creative thinking to develop these projects, you are clearly jealous of his works.
Yeah. Agreed.
According to Bjarke, it also takes an amazingly open culture to not be afraid of voicing (seemingly) ridiculous ideas.
For his Copenhagen power plant, BIG literally said, “What if we combine a ski hill and a power plant?” And then somebody else chimed in, “What if the chimney blows smoke rings?”
The best ideas are often the most distilled and only appear to look simple – when in reality it takes complex processes, thought, and time.
(Maybe I should’ve further distilled my I’ll-fated attempt at architectural humor.)