Bjarke Ingels (Copenhagen, 1974), founder of the firm BIG, has confirmed that he will be participating in the Architecture and Design Forum at the next Cevisama international ceramics fair, set for 3–7 February at Feria Valencia.

Luis Fernández-Galiano, director of the Cevisama lecture series, has said this of Bjarke Ingels: “By pollinating the Scandinavian world’s collective conscience with the intrepid individuality of the Anglo-Saxon world, Ingels has fused Copenhagen and New York in a happy synthesis that also combines care for the enviroment, extolled by most Europeans, with all-American business pragmatism whilst at the same time combining ecological and economic dimensions in a way that few architectural practices have managed to do.”

Bjake Ingels established BIG in 2005, having co-founded PLOT Architects in 2001 and worked at OMA in Rotterdam. The programamtic and technically innovative nature of his buildings, along with his attention to available resources, has made him the leader of a hedonistic kind of sustainable approach to architecture, combining environmental and social considerations. Ingels has received numerous distinctions and they include the Danish Crown Prince’s Culture Prize in 2011, the Venice Biennale Golden Lion in 2004, and the ULI Prize for Excellence in 2009. In 2011 The Wall Street Journal named him Architectural Innovator of the Year, and in 2016 he made it into Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people. He has balanced professional practice with teaching at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Rice Universities, and is an honorary professor at the School of Architecture of the Royal Academy of Arts in Copenhagen. Among his most acclaimed works are The Twist, a sculptural twisting bridge cum viewing deck cum museum that recently opened in Kistefos Park, in Norway; VIA 57 West, a pyramidal residential building in Manhattan; and the LEGO House in Billund (Denmark).