These BIG-Inspired Posters Highlight the Evolving “Syntax” in Architecture

Courtesy of Giuseppe Gallo via Mirabilia

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has a knack for combatting a variety of complex issues via its step-by-step approach, yielding a design that seems almost inevitable. Ingels has labeled his design strategy as a form of “architectural alchemy.” This combines multiple programs or “ingredients” that on their own, would simply be seen as “normal.” But in aggregate, you get more out of the mix than you would keeping them separate. The result of this looks something like a waste-to-energy plant topped by a ski-slope, or a parabolic skyscraper with a Copenhagen-style courtyard.

Inspired by BIG’s “will to find new solutions for environmental, social, economic and technological problems”, artist Giuseppe Gallo has designed these 9 posters that evaluate BIG’s unique use of syntax.

More on syntax in architecture and how you can get your own copies of the posters after the break.

VIA 57 West. Image Courtesy of Giuseppe Gallo via Mirabilia

Amager Resource Center. Image Courtesy of Giuseppe Gallo via Mirabilia

Gallo references American philosopher Charles Morris and his study of semiotics and its three different fields: semantics, pragmatics and syntax. Semantics being the study of a particular “system of signs” – or perhaps in this case “forms”, pragmatics being the influence of those “forms” on those influenced by it, and syntax being the study of the relationship between “forms”. The shift in architectural practice to more digital tools has changed the syntax and delivery of design, thus creating a new process of form generation.

Serpentine Pavilion. Image Courtesy of Giuseppe Gallo via Mirabilia

Kistefos Museum. Image Courtesy of Giuseppe Gallo via Mirabilia

The Spiral. Image Courtesy of Giuseppe Gallo via Mirabilia

Each of the projects in the illustrations epitomizes this shift in syntax via BIG’s practice of “architectural alchemy”. The projects reimagined in the posters include some of BIG’s most notable work: VIA 57 West, AIA 2017 Housing Award winner for Multifamily Housing; The Spiral, currently under construction on the High Line in NYC; and BIG’s design for the 2016 Serpentine Pavilion, which is set to be relocated to a permanent location in Vancouver.