Sky-Frame: Welcome aboard!

He is something of a rock star among contemporary architects. On stage discussing projects or sharing his thoughts on design, this is someone who – with his self-confident appearance, his quick, pointed flow of speech and piercing gaze, really captivates an audience. Of course, we are talking about Bjarke Ingels, whose designs have been causing a sensation worldwide for several years now. To illustrate his ideas, he sometimes even uses Lego bricks and figures: architectural visions can sometimes have very playful origins!

As an architect, the 45-year-old combines two widely differing qualities: pragmatism and a thoroughly unconventional approach that seeks new solutions. Ingels plays with formats, dimensions and structures that form into spectacular architectural entities, thus completely redefining spaces and structures. BIG, the architectural office that he founded, is housed in a high, spacious studio in a former factory and looks like a huge playground – the somewhat immodest sounding name, by the way, simply stands for Bjarke Ingels Group.

In a new short film, we get to know Ingels from a completely different, quieter side. It was produced by Sky-Frame AG, the Swiss manufacturer of frameless sliding windows, for their ‘My Point of View’ series, in which renowned designers and architects talk about their ‘point of view’ – and how important the idea of an unobstructed view is to them personally. It's not about the things that make this technically possible, but about the experience of freedom. And that is something very personal and unique, strongly influenced by a particular place and the nature surrounding it. So ‘My Point of View’ does not focus on the product, but on the commitment of a creative personality to vastness, view, nature and space.

The film does not take us, as one might expect, into one of the buildings designed by Ingels, but rather into his own home. For this architect though, home is not a house. What then? As the camera first presents us with a bird's-eye view of Copenhagen’s harbour and then a close-up of an anchored ferry, we understand: this is home! Of course, Ingels has rebuilt the former car ferry according to his own vision, naturally one that also involves creating the greatest possible views that this special location has to offer.

This is made possible using the Sky-Frame solution which is installed on the houseboat: ‘In an ideal world, an architect wants as little as possible between inside and outside. They want the clearest glass with the least amount of iron – for zero colouration. And you want as few structural elements – in other words, frames – as possible. Here on the ferry, the windows are so transparent that it feels like you could fly through them.’ The large sliding windows bring the harbour atmosphere into the living room and never let you forget where you are. Ingels talks in the film about the fact that architecture – unlike art in a gallery – actually creates a reality and not just commentary: ‘Every time you make an architectural project, you have the chance to make this fragment of the world more like your ideal world.’ Ingel's striving for perfection is also evident in other statements he makes in the film – including his belief that current climate problems can also be solved if approached in a targeted and conscious manner.

For Ingels, this is more than just a soundbite: He and the BIG team, for example, designed the alternative power station at Copenhill, which operates almost emission-free. On its roof – would you believe – there’s an artificial ski slope that is used all year round. The shiny, asymmetrical silver building has long since become a place of pilgrimage for architecture fans. It is creative ideas like these that distinguish Bjarke Ingels and which this film investigates. Ideas, in short, that are awesome – ideas for which one needs to be able to look at the world from unusual perspectives, as well as possessing clear-headedness, courage and vision.

© Architonic