Bjarke Ingels is his own breed of architect and a pioneer of angst-free design, according to his former boss and Pritzker Prize winner Rem Koolhaas.
Ingels was named among Time’s “100 Most Influential People” on Thursday, listed in the artist category alongside the likes of rapper Kendrick Lamar and singer Ariana Grande. In a small writeup for the magazine, Koolhaas credited Ingels as the “first major architect who disconnected the profession completely from angst.”
“He threw out the ballast and soared,” Koolhaas said. “With that, he is completely in tune with the thinkers of Silicon Valley, who want to Make The World A Better Place without the existential hand-wringing that previous generations felt was crucial to earn utopianist credibility.
The Danish architect’s waterfront pyramid — tetrahedron, for the especially accurate and pretentious — at 625 West 57th Street started leasing last month. His firm has more than 60 projects underway, five of which are in New York City. [Time] — Kathryn Brenzel