Yes is More, Please!

Yes is More : an Archicomic on Architectural Evolution by BIG Bjarke Ingels Group, Bjarke Ingels. Published in Köln by Taschen, c2010.

This may be the world's first "archicomic" (that's a comic about architecture, of course). Yes is More is a book about the projects (planned, executed or as yet unrealized) from Danish architecture firm BIG, headed by Bjarke Ingels, a man of boundless energy and contagious enthusiasm for his work. He works creatively around the restrictions to Danish planning law, pushing bureaucracy to its beautiful limits of height and shape. He joins contradictory ideas from the client to create people-friendly, highly functional buildings and spaces. He enjoys the challenge of an awkward site and honours it with a building in clever harmony with its surroundings. The comic style gives an immediacy to the information being presented, Ingels directing us to look here and hear what he's saying. The designs are so innovative and so appealing that you'll find yourself feeling exasperated at the clients and officials who turn down their designs because they are too 'radical'. The Cloverfield sports grounds and housing complex was a project that didn't become a reality for political reasons, officials decided on an inferior people-unfriendly design instead. This book is challenging and engaging and makes us wish public spaces were designed more with people in mind, to make optimum use out of any living, working or recreational space.