Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-08-10)

Traditionalapartmentlayoutssimplydon’t

accountformanyfamilyformats,Ingelssays,

includingsingle-parenthouseholds,childless

households,andco-livingarrangements

withmultipleroommates.“Mostofushave,

inourlifetime,stayedina sharedflatwith

otherpeople,”hesays,“wherewetooka

bourgeoishomefromtheearly20thcentury

andconvertedit intosomethingwhere

fiveyoungpeopleeachhada bedroom

anda sharedlivingarea.Thatshouldbe

reinterpretedintobuildingdesigns.”

IntheSluishuis,anIngelsprojectin

Amsterdam,oneoftheapartmenttypes

is calleda slicehome,whichis essentially

twoapartmentswithsharedroomsinthe

middle.“Itcouldbefordivorcedfamilieswith

children,”heexplains.“Dependingonwhose

weekit is,youcanmovetheentrywaysothe

childrencanstayinthesamehome.”

Co-living,hesays,“isgoingtobea

biggerandbiggerpartofourresidential

future.”Peoplemighthavedistancedduring

Covid,buttheongoingeconomicslump

mayforcemanytofindsavingsinshared

accommodations.“I don’tthinktheresultof

Covidis thatwe’regoingtoliveincomplete

isolationina sortofhermeticbubble,”he

says.Themostimmediateconsequence

is "thatdensecitieshavediscoveredthe

importanceofoutdoorspace.”

56

THE FUTURE OF... Bloomberg Pursuits August 10, 2020

“During Covid, one of my partners in New

York took every conference call from his

balcony,” Ingels says. “It’s generous enough

in terms of space, and it’s shaded well

enough that it can function as his home

office.” Most people think of balconies—

particularly in urban apartment buildings—

as “small little things, maybe with space for a

potted plant and room to smoke a cigarette,”

he says. “But I think the balcony is going to

be much more like an outdoor room.”

Even though it’s an extension of the

home, Ingels doesn’t think a balcony should

necessarily be as private as the rest of

the house. It could, he says, be a form of

semipublic, semiprivate common space.

Take his apartment building in Copenhagen

with balconies jutting out over one another.

“At first it was seen as challenging,

because you didn’t have full privacy from

your neighbor,” he says. “Now it’s seen as

creating a community.”

W

hen pandemic stay-

at-home orders

were implemented

in March, people in cities around the

world were made prisoners in their

own apartments. Residents in many

buildings designed by the Danish-born

architect Bjarke Ingels found them-

selves spending time on their balcony.

“One of our first buildings, in

Copenhagen, has these very long

balconies that are staggered,” he says.

There, residents connect with neigh-

borsina physicallydistantway.“People

were sending me videos of ‘block

parties’ where everyone was outside,

enjoying the sunset and listening to

music, but safely.”

Ingels isn’t the first architect to build

a balcony, but he’s made it a motif in his

residencesfromNewYorktoTaiwan.

Incorporating more outdoor space

seemsinevitableafterCovid-19. And as

the world reassesses offices and urban

space, Ingels sees an opportunity to

fast-track other ideas and hone the

design language he’s been champion-

ing for years. “We’ve been spending a

big part of Covid, really all of 2020, look-

ing at this,” he says.

It’s not only outdoor spaces. Ingels

wants to change everything, including

mechanical systems, which he says lag

in innovation; facades, which could be

more energy-efficient; and the layout of

apartments, which are mostly one-size-

fits-all. “In the 1950s, there was this kind

offixedideaofa nuclearfamily,whereas

the diversityofhouseholds todayis

massive,” he says. In his eyes, urban

homes in the next few decades will

reflect a broad spectrum of uses, as well

as iterative innovations in technology.

Here are a few ways Ingels intends to

improve housing, wellness, and how we

live and (try to) work.

Architect

Bjarke Ingels has

five big ideas to fix

urban living

By James Tarmy

REARRANGED

LIVINGSPACES

BALCONIES

AS ROOMS

Sluishuis,aforthcoming

building by Ingels

in Amsterdam

VM Houses in Copenhagen,

completed in 2005