Bjarke Ingels's calendar year started very badly for at least three reasons. So, in mid-January, the international community accused the founder of BIG of unscrupulousness and flirting with those in power. The reason was the meeting of the Danish architect with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. In the international arena and at home, the politician has a dubious reputation: Bolsonaro is known for his homophobic, racist and chauvinistic statements *. A slightly lesser-known epithet given to him by the media is "Captain Chainsaw": under Jair Bolsonaro, the rate of rainforest destruction in the Amazon increased by 88%, and funding for environmental agencies fell by a third. The catastrophic fires that raged in the Amazon in 2019, and the difficulties in extinguishing them, are also associated with the activities of the current President of Brazil.
Considering the above, it is not surprising that the young progressive architect did not advertise the meeting - despite his usual openness, which he demonstrates
on Instagram. The picture, in which Bjarke Ingels is captured in the company of an odious politician, was published by the Ministry of Tourism of Brazil. The meeting took place on January 14 in the capital, preceded by a four-day tour of several states in the country with the investment group Nômade, which promotes "mindful tourism" - the company recently built an eco-hotel in Tulum, Mexico - and the Brazilian Minister of Tourism Alvar Antonio, who organized the trip. The delegation studied the possibilities of developing eco-tourism on the north-eastern coast of the country.
O presidente @jairbolsonaro e @BjarkeIngels se reúnem, a convite do ministro @Marceloalvaroan, para tratar de projetos turísticos no país. Na reunião, trataram sobre atração de novos investimentos estrangeiros ao mercado de #viagens:
Marcos Correa pic.twitter.com/bVFpczRoQj– Ministério do Turismo (@MTurismo) January 15, 2020
After the photo appeared online, the star architect was accused of hypocrisy, lamenting that "money [for Ingels has become] more important than morality." “I believe that the tourism projects of Bjarke Ingels, [which he will develop] for Jair Bolsonaro, will not be designed for all visitors,” architecture critic Ellis Woodman, director of the London Architecture Foundation, hinted at representatives of the LGBT community. To a Twitter post, he attached a link to an article in The Guardian about Bolsonaro's complex relationship with this social group.
Commenting on an article on the Dezeen website that covered a meeting between a Danish architect and a Brazilian president, one reader commented that "if Bjarke Ingels were gay, this meeting would not have taken place." He also wrote that he supports the founder of BIG in his attempts to "do good deeds in Brazil," but considers it a bad idea to cooperate with someone who is "on a witch hunt." "Would an honest architect want to work with the man who destroyed a third of the Amazon?" - another commentator is indignant.
Paul Goldberger, an American architectural critic, writer, and Pulitzer Prize winner, shared his thoughts. “Will any of the [existing] customers refuse to [work] with BIG, or maybe any of the potential clients will make a choice not in favor of Bjarke Ingels, since he is so carelessly flirting with Bolsonaro's business? If not, then it's not just Bjarke who lacks moral standards,”concludes Goldberger. And an urbanist from Buenos Aires called the founder of BIG “just another architect flirting with power,” recalling a very old but always acute topic for the profession.
Ingels promptly reacted to the criticism with a letter (the full text can be viewed here), in which he explained that the trip around the country was a study tour, and the meeting with Bolsonaro was not part of the original plans and took place almost spontaneously. Ingels stressed that neither the Brazilian president nor local ministers are BIG's clients, but he was "happy to share ideas and ideals with government officials who are ready to listen to them."
Ingels urged critics not to divide the world into black and white, and countries and companies - into "handshake" and those from which it is worth staying away. In his opinion, this is an "oversimplified" approach. “[To] change the world for the better requires active engagement, not superficial clickbait or ignorance,” explains the head of BIG. And the best thing a top-notch architect can do is literally step out of his comfort zone, go to “places far from [his] ideals,” and transform the environment there. “We may never reach the goal, but we certainly won't succeed if we don't even try,” sums up the Dane.
The troubles of the "star" did not end on ethical issues. At the end of January, it became known that Bjarke Ingels had lost his position as chief architect at the international coworking operator WeWork. Recall that in two incomplete years of work, Ingels managed to build a WeGrow elementary school in New York for We Work. According to the official version, the reason for the dismissal was the restructuring of the company and a change in management. Not so long ago, WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann was dismissed from the post of CEO because of a "dubious management strategy", and 2,400 ordinary employees were fired. In addition, the company narrowly escaped bankruptcy. Perhaps now they are trying to avoid scandals especially carefully, and Bjarke Ingels, traveling through Brazil, just found himself in the epicenter of one of them.
The third failure of Bjarke Ingels is associated with a project for the New York World Trade Center, where reconstruction has not yet been completed after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. The last tower of the World Trade Center - for which area 2 is located diagonally from the 9/11 memorial - was supposed to be built according to a project by a Danish architect, presented in 2015. But, according to the New York Post, the case was again entrusted to Norman Foster - it was he who was involved in this site before the job was given to Bjarke Ingels.
The British master presented his vision of a skyscraper as part of the WTC in 2006 - he got an 88-storey skyscraper, consisting of four prismatic volumes with a sloping top. Architectural critics have found the building to resemble a diamond. However, for a long time they could not find a tenant for the office building, which is why its implementation was under threat. In 2015, the search was crowned with success: "sister" companies 21st Century Fox and News Corp. volunteered to occupy house 200 on Greenwich Street. However, the media corporations found Foster's project out of date, so the young Ingels was called in to replace him. The BIG bureau proposed a more original version - an 80-storey tower, consisting of seven glass block-steps. However, 21st Century Fox and News Corp. they changed their minds to move to building # 2, and the developer Silverstein Properties reversed it.
It is not yet clear how the second "rendition" performed by Norman Foster will look like. The head of Silverstein Properties, Larry Silverstein, explained only that the 14-year-old project will have to "work hard to meet modern needs and tastes." It is hoped that this time the implementation will not be delayed: there is still no anchor tenant, but Larry Silverstein hinted to reporters that construction could begin without him.
* For example, in a 2011 interview, Bolsonaro, then not the president of Brazil, said that he would rather have his son died in a car accident than become gay. In 2014, he said to one of the political opponents that he would not rape her, since she “does not deserve it,” and later added that the woman was simply “ugly”. In 2011, when asked by a journalist what he would do if one of his sons fell in love with a black woman, Bolsonaro replied that this would not happen, since his children were "well brought up." In addition to all of the above, the current President of Brazil openly supports torture and the death penalty, speaks fondly of the military dictatorship that reigned in the country in 1964-1985 (and only regrets that the military "killed little" their political opponents), opposes abortion and extremely skeptical (and even cynical) about environmental issues. During one of his speeches, he called the global concern about the state of the environment excessive, explaining that the problem only matters for "vegans who eat plants."
