Bjarke Ingels started his own office in 2005, Bjarke Ingels Group, after having co-founded PLOT Architects in 2001.Through a series of award-winning design projects and buildings Bjarke Ingels has created an international reputation as a member of a new generation of architects that combine shrewd analysis, playful experimentation, social responsibility and humor. In 2004 he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for the Stavanger Concert House, and the following year he received the Forum AID Award for the VM Houses. By practicing what Bjarke Ingels likes to describe as ‘programmatic alchemy’, BIG often mixes conventional ingredients such as living, leisure, working, parking and shopping into new forms of symbiotic culture. Alongside his architectural practice, Bjarke has been active as a Visiting Professor at Rice University’s School of Architecture and most recently at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.