Gallery

Film: Squint/Opera

Project design team:
BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) - Lead architect, One Architecture, Starr Whitehouse, James Lima Planning, Green Shields Ecology, Buro Happold, AEA Consulting, Project projects, Arcadis, Level infrastructure, Parsons School of Constructed Environments.

Client:
Administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development
Supported by The Rockefeller Foundation

Squint/Opera created a film about award-winning architect BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group’s and their team’s vision for protecting Manhattan against future superstorms, developed with and for the people of New York City. The film documents the results of the studio’s year-long design process generated during the Rebuild by Design competition, an initiative of the President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force.

The Dryline explores the potential of building a continuous storm barrier around lower Manhattan that transforms underused waterfront spaces into a beautiful protective ribbon of parks and open spaces, elevated walkways and cycle routes, sports areas, cafes and more. Interviews with members of the local community and people on the street combined with animations, provide a vivid image of the vision, part of which was recently awarded 335 million USD to start implementation on New York City’s Lower East Side.

The film recently went on show at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C as part of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group’s new exhibition HOT TO COLD: an odyssey of architectural adaptation which takes a behind-the-scenes look at the studio’s creative process. Travelling from the hottest to the coldest parts of our planet, the exhibition explores how BIG's design solutions are shaped by their cultural and climatic contexts. More than 60 three-dimensional models are suspended in the museum's historic Great Hall in an unprecedented use of the 30 000 sq ft public space.