(Photo: Dragor Luftfoto/Courtesy of Bjarke Ingels Group)

Copenhagen
Project: 8 House
Architects: Big | Bjarke Ingels Group
Date: 2010

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Bjarke Ingels is unquestionably one of architecture’s young superstars, with various projects on tap around the world, including a pyramid of an apartment complex on West 57th Street. The much-discussed 8 House, which has 476 residences in all, is just one example of how he’s rethinking form and function in an urban setting. As Ingels has said: “8 House is a three-dimensional neighborhood rather than an architectural object. An alley of 150 rowhouses stretches through the entire block and twists all the way from street level to the top and down again. Where social life, the spontaneous encounter, and neighbor interaction traditionally are restricted to the ground level, the 8 House allows [them] to expand all the way to the top”—as on the walking and bike track that runs from the ground level to the tenth floor and right back down again.

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