Big Time architect

Documentary offers fascinating insight into Danish superstar Ingels

Last year’s The Infinite Happiness explored the 8 House, a unique mixed-use building in Copenhagen that tries to instil joy in its residents. Big Time takes a more traditional documentary approach to Bjarke Ingels, the superstar Danish architect behind that project.

In 2012, Ingels moved to New York City, designed the incredible, pyramid-shaped Via 57 West building, got a concussion, had a mid-life crisis and fell in love.

That’s a lot of ground and groundbreaking for director Kaspar Astrup Schröder to cover in about 90 minutes, so some of these stories are a little thin: You could blink and miss Ingels’ Spanish girlfriend. But it’s still an arresting portrayal of celebrity, genius and urban design.

Ingels, we learn, grew up in a modest house where his parents still live, and whose accessible roof (he used to play up there until his dad told him to knock it off before he hurt himself ) has clearly influenced many of his adult creations.

Those include Amager Bakke, a super-clean waste-to-energy plant with a ski slope on the roof; a maritime museum built around an abandoned dry dock; and the aforementioned New York building, built in a “Scandimerican” style that mixes density with social sustainability, and thankfully wasn’t called “Amerinavian.”

Though beautifully shot,

Big Time is at its most powerful when it focuses not on the skyscrapers but the man. At one point, thinking he might have a brain tumour, Ingels muses darkly on all the famous architects who died young, concluding: “You really need to lay some bricks while you’re here; the building you’re building now could be your last.”

Good advice for any profession, or for life in general.