An Analysis of the Top 10 Architectural Modeling Techniques of BIG Architects

The design philosophy of BIG Architects has always been permeated with the core of innovation, breakthrough and efficiency, and its schemes have an undeniable persuasiveness. Every time it participates in a design competition, whether it wins the bid or not, BIG's works will quickly become a hot topic in the industry and beyond.

Many people are amazed by BIG's unrestrained design ideas and think that its works can always astound the public. But in fact, many of its designs are not without trace, but cleverly apply the top 10 common modeling techniques in the field of architecture. Let's take a look at the application logic of these techniques together.

Dislocation design is a very classic creative technique in architectural creation. By means of dislocation arrangement, angle torsion, upside-down placement or position offset of different elements or volumes of a building, it can not only enrich the spatial hierarchy of the building, but also endow the overall form with a unique sense of rhythm, and finally create a novel and unique visual effect.

In specific practice, this technique can be realized through the scattered layout of floors and the dislocation deformation of building forms. Take the ** Twist Museum** as an example. The prototype of this building is a cuboid. The designer rotated its middle part by 90° and endowed the building with a unique dynamic rhythm through the dislocation treatment of the facade.

The Twist Museum is BIG's first completed project in Norway. Positioned as a "habitable bridge", it twists across the winding Randselva River, creating a brand-new art experience scene for the Kistefos Sculpture Park in Jevnaker. With this simple twisting action, the building volume can naturally extend from the low-lying forest river bank to the high-lying hillside in the north. As a continuous path connecting the landscape, main entrances are set on both the north and south sides of the building.

Entering from the south entrance, visitors can walk through a 16-meter-long aluminum-faced steel bridge to reach a double-height space, where they can enjoy a panoramic view of the scenery in the north. Meanwhile, a 9-meter-long pedestrian overpass is also connected to this space, further expanding the tour route.

The architectural rotation technique refers to changing the overall form and plane layout of a building by rotating the building main body, components or internal space in the design stage. At the same time, it can also flexibly adjust the orientation and entrance position of the building to better adapt to different site environments and spatial functional requirements. This design technique can create a highly recognizable architectural style and easily attract public attention.

Through rotation operation, designers can change the extension direction of the space, make it form a better echo relationship with the surrounding environment, and take this as the starting point to promote the diversified changes of building form and space. However, it should be noted that the rotation design may cause the discontinuity of the overall structure of the building, making it difficult to meet the specifications for seismic, wind-resistant and anti-overturning performance.

As a benchmark for transforming from a "Internet-famous architect" to a world-class top design firm, BIG first entered the Chinese public's vision thanks to the stunning appearance of the Denmark Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, which is also BIG's first completed project outside Denmark.

The pavilion is a typical application of the rotation technique - rotating part of the building volume around the central axis to change the opening and closing direction of the space. The pavilion is composed of two circular tracks, dividing the interior and exterior areas. Overlooking from a high altitude, the whole pavilion presents a spiral shape, breaking the closed layout of traditional pavilions and allowing visitors to continuously experience the shuttle and switching between indoor and outdoor spaces during the visit.

The architectural interpenetration technique refers to interpenetrating and superimposing different building volumes or design elements to create a rich, diverse and highly expressive architectural form. This technique can not only enhance the spatial sense and hierarchy of the building, but also make the building integrate more naturally with the surrounding environment.

The interpenetrating spatial relationship originates from the overlap of two different spatial fields, eventually forming a shared transition space. Through this technique, designers can change the extension direction of the building space and shape a dynamic and expressive form space. For example, by interpenetrating two building volumes of different shapes at a certain node, a unique form and direction change can be created.

The Heights Teaching Complex expands outward with a vertical central axis as the core, eventually forming a terraced building stacked with multiple green balconies. The entire building is composed of five rectangular floor slabs rotated and stacked around a fixed pivot point, which not only retains the intimacy of the campus community, but also takes into account the space use efficiency of a single-story building. To realize the design of green balconies in the extended area outside the classrooms, each floor slab is rotated at a certain angle around the central axis.

The four-story balcony passes through the interior of the building and leads directly to the outdoor leisure area; the spacious balcony on the first floor can be used as a public activity venue shared by the school and the community.

In architectural design, the application of curve and streamline forms is a common and key modeling technique. By introducing curve and streamline elements, it can not only add a sense of movement and fluency to the building, enhance the overall artistic value, but also make the building form better integrate with the surrounding environment.

In design, curve forms can also be used to express the soft texture of the building and create spatial continuity. Compared with the toughness and coldness of straight lines and broken lines, curves can endow the building with a more gentle and friendly visual experience.

Considering the site characteristics of the building being located in a park with scenery on all sides, the designer designed the interior space of the pavilion into an arc shape to achieve the effect of 360° capturing natural scenery. Finally, 8 functional spaces of different types are created into natural arc shapes and connected to each other through curved corridors to form an organic and unified whole.

The concave-convex design technique refers to deliberately setting concave and convex shapes on the building facade to change the appearance of the building, create a unique light and shadow effect, and enhance the dynamic sense of vision. This design can not only endow the building with higher recognition and attraction, but also improve the artistic expression and three-dimensional sense of the building.

The concave-convex and dislocation treatment methods are widely used in building facade design, from the overall shape of the building unit to the decoration of components and details. The advantages of this technique are pure operation, strong controllability, and it can create excellent light and shadow effects, rhythm and dynamic sense, which plays an irreplaceable role in improving the atmosphere and texture of the building space.

The architectural repetition technique refers to repeatedly using the same elements, forms, colors and materials in the design to create visual harmony and unity. By arranging single elements in different angles and combinations to form large-scale assemblies, it can effectively enhance the overall momentum of the building and create a rhythmic visual effect.

This technique helps to establish a clear architectural language, improve the recognizability of the building, and also reduce the construction cost to a certain extent. However, it should be noted that excessive repetition tends to make the building form monotonous and lack innovation. Therefore, designers need to appropriately integrate elements of change and contrast on the premise of ensuring overall harmony.

The stretching technique refers to exaggerating the stretching treatment of a certain part of the building volume to make it the visual focus of the building, thereby enhancing the tension and visual impact of the building. In design practice, this technique is often used to highlight the core characteristics of the building and make it the finishing touch of the entire design.

Through stretching design, it can not only change the spatial form of the building, increase the sense of hierarchy and three-dimensionality, but also shape the iconic characteristics of the building. It can not only quickly attract public attention, but also express design concepts and artistic connotations through exaggerated forms.

In addition, the connection between the stretched part and the main building will form a highly expressive shape due to the difference in connection methods, further enriching the visual effect of the building.

The design purpose of the fracture technique is to balance the orderliness of regular forms and the dynamic beauty of free changes. It allows designers to introduce free elements through local "fracture" treatment on the premise of maintaining the overall order of the building, thus creating a more dynamic and tense architectural work.

This technique has a unique charm in architectural design and can endow the building with dynamic beauty and strong visual impact. As a breakthrough conventional design method, the fracture technique can break the closed and dull sense of regular forms.

It should be noted that although it breaks the integrity of regular forms, it does not fundamentally destroy the overall order of the building. This local "damage" instead highlights the opposition and symbiosis between freedom and rules.

Architectural bionics is an important branch of bionics. It draws inspiration from the functions, structures and forms of various organisms in the biological world, and applies the research results to architectural creation, so as to solve some problems in architectural design and urban planning, coordinate the relationship between buildings and the natural environment, and help maintain ecological balance.

The architectural modeling bionic technique refers to creating architectural works with both vitality and ecological value by imitating the form, function, structure and material characteristics of organisms. This technique not only helps to promote the harmonious coexistence of humans, buildings and nature, but also provides new ideas for future architectural design.

The architectural cutting technique refers to shaping a unique architectural form and spatial experience through "subtractive design" by cutting off part of the building volume. This technique is widely used in architectural design. It can not only bring a new visual effect to the building, enhance the sense of hierarchy and three-dimensionality, but also break the traditional square "box-type" layout and create a more dynamic and tense architectural form.

At the same time, the cutting design can also optimize the spatial layout and streamline organization inside the building, making the transition between different functional areas more natural and smooth. In addition, through precise cutting treatment, good lighting and ventilation effects inside the building can be achieved.