#1 The Danish Maritime Museum
This project is important to me because it demonstrates the most important characteristic of BIG's work, an ability to create aesthetic beauty by means of manipulating a site. The project is located next to Kronborg Castle, a historic danish site that the firm could not block views of, and is confined entirely within an old dry dock. The project uses the docks embededness into the ground to pull sunlight down, by placing only circulation in view, such that all of its gallery spaces receive natural light and the initial form of the dock remains apparent, giving a strong notion of structures past a place in its future.
#2 West 57 New York aka The Courtscraper
What makes the courtscraper so important to me is the way in which is manages take the typical New York skyscraper form, as well as the cities love of parks, put them together, and actually get the project built. The ability to actually get a project as visually dramatic built in the city is a testament to BIG's ability to make their radical design manifest in highly volatile political climates. The project combines apartments with a view of the Hudson River, with ground level shopping and an interior courtyard to make the site a place that people will go as tourists and as consumers to look at this futuristic architecture, become acquainted with it, and hopefully be more accepting of this type of work in the future.
#3 Beach and Howe Street Vancouver
This project is in my opinion BIG's best project to date because it is the firms philosophy manifested. The project take a small triangular lot in Vancouver, and grows out to a square by using the building code a design tool. The building code gives certain height clearance for buildings to be above other buildings, and in this case, a highway. The project then take those clearances and uses them as freedom to expand the project, doubling the floor plate by the time it reaches full height. This shows how thorough BIG searches to understand the rules its playing by, not to break the rules, but to use the given rules of a site and program requirement as design tools, rather than design inhibitors.
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