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THINK HUMAN
COPENHAGEN DESIGN WEEK 11
A WORLD OF PRAGMATIC UTOPIAS ANDREAS KLOK PEDERSEN, PARTNER AT BIG ARCHITECTS, TALKS TO JANE ROWLEY ABOUT INJECTING HEDONISM INTO VISIONARY ARCHITECTURE THAT TRANSFORMS TRADITIONAL CONCEPTS OF SUSTAINABILITY.
“BUILDING SUSTAINABLY IS NOT ONLY ABOUT REDUCING THE ENERGY CONSUMPTION OF BUILDINGS, BUT ALSO ABOUT RECHANNELING WASTE PRODUCTS INTO OTHER USESâ€? BIG  is  a  company  that  works  on  a  global  scale.  What  JOHUNLZ HUK KL]LSVWTLU[Z HYL `V\ J\YYLU[S` WHY[ VM& Right  now  we’re  building  in  Asia,  Europe  and  the  US.  In  New  York  we’re  working  on  the  W57  building  in  4HUOH[[HU [OL PUP[PHS YLHZVU ^L ZL[ \W HU VMĂ„JL [OLYL We’re  experiencing  a  lot  of  new  opportunities  in  the  US.  It’s  a  great  climate  for  innovation,  and  in  the  wake  VM [OL Ă„UHUJPHS JYPZPZ [OLYL ZLLTZ [V IL H UL^MV\UK ambition  to  address  real  urban  challenges.  0U (ZPH ^LÂť]L ZLLU H ZOPM[ MYVT WYVĂ„[ KYP]LU MHZ[ paced  construction  to  the  emergence  of  much  higher  architectural  ambitions.  Maybe  the  2008  Olympics  in  Beijing  was  the  turning  point  for  this  change?  Later  this  `LHY ^L Z[HY[ [OL JVUZ[Y\J[PVU VM [OL :OLUaOLU ,ULYN` Mansion,  a  highly  ambitious  project  in  terms  of  both  architecture  and  sustainability.  We  expect  to  be  working  continuously  in  Asia  in  the  future,  meeting  the  challenges  of  the  still  explosive  urban  growth  in  the  region. BIG  operates  with  the  term  Pragmatic  Utopias.  How  do  you  combine  down-to-earth  practicalities  ^P[O OPNO Ă…`PUN ]PZPVUZ&
We  developed  the  term  Pragmatic  Utopias  during  a  YLZLHYJO WYVQLJ[ PU 0[ YLĂ…LJ[Z V\Y HTIP[PVU [V YLVYNHUPaL VY YLKLZPNU ZVJPL[` [V KYHZ[PJHSS` PTWYV]L quality  of  life  –  while  taking  all  practical  constraints  into  account.  Being  based  in  Denmark,  we’re  used  to  operating  in  a  pragmatic  and  strongly  consensus  driven  context.  The  importance  of  addressing  collective  and  public  interests,  in  both  design  and  communication,  has  always  fuelled  our  projects.  This  has  been  key  to  our  work  in  the  US,  where  architecture  has  traditionally  been  dominated  by  either  generic,  practical  developments  or  visually  sophisticated  and  expensive  buildings.  Here  the  intersection  of  the  practical  and  the  spectacular  represents  a  radically  new  approach. What  role  does  sustainability  play  in  your  utopias? One  of  the  Pragmatic  Utopias  we  developed  was  called  ‘Little  Denmark’  -  a  small  self-sustaining  neighbourhood  with  a  broad  range  of  urban  programmes.  We  looked  at  the  technical  requirements  of  a  wide  range  of  city  functions,  and  tried  to  create  small  energy Â
loops  by  combining  them.  For  us  building  sustainably  is  not  only  about  reducing  the  energy  consumption  of  buildings,  but  also  about  rechanneling  waste  products  into  other  uses.  We  discovered,  for  example,  that  all  [OL MYLLaLYZ PU H Z\WLYTHYRL[ WYVK\JL LUV\NO Z\YWS\Z heat  to  heat  the  water  in  a  public  swimming  pool.  By  co-thinking  the  two  functions,  we  created  an  outdoor  heated  pool  on  top  of  the  supermarket  so  people  doing  their  shopping  could  look  up  and  see  people  diving  into  the  water  through  the  ceilings. (Z ^LSS HZ [OL Z\WLYTHYRL[ ^L SVVRLK H[ VMÄJL and  residential  buildings.  Danish  homes  take  a  lot  VM LULYN` [V OLH[ ^OLYLHZ VMÄJLZ \Z\HSS` NLULYH[L surplus  heat.  By  combining  these  different  functions  PU H ZPUNSL I\PSKPUN ^L JV\SK TPUPTPaL LULYN` JVUsumption,  and  maybe  have  enough  excess  heat  for  new  recreative  functions. How  do  these  ideas  play  out  in  the  Loop  City  project  BIG  has  developed? Loop  City  is  a  new  growth  model  for  the  cross-border  region  between  Sweden  and  Denmark:  an  infrastruc-