Clog's first issue focuses on Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), a firm unique in that its rise and rapid output has kept pace with, and is inseparable from, online media. Having emerged from the dissolution of PLOT (The 2001-2005 partnership of Bjarke Ingels and Julien de Smedt), BIG is based in Copenhagen and has published 126+ projects in nearly every major architecture journal, design blog, and popular culture magazine, and has thus far completed nine buildings. In late 2010, BIG established its first full overseas office in New York City.
It is impossible to discuss BIG without considering its principal, Bjarke Ingels. Ingels presents a rare example of a young architect leading a firm that is not only building significant work, but which appears to be having fun in the process. In a profession that is notorious for abusing its youngest members and which often awards "young architect" prizes to practitioners in their 40's, the fact that -at 36- Ingels is already being mentioned as a potential Pritzker Prize candidate is certainly remarkable. It is unsurprising that Ingels and BIG are admired by the young, especially within the schools. It is equally unsurprising that with BIG's mounting success and exposure, the firm has begun to attract criticism, especially from fellow practitioners.
It is therefore at a potentially crucial moment in BIG's development and expansion that CLOG attempts to step back and take stock. Bringing together contributors from backgrounds including architecture, criticism, parkour, engineering, comics, photography, philosophy, and more, CLOG: BIG presents the first holistic, critical examination of Bjarke Ingels and his firm.