"Why do your buildings look like buildings?" Ten years ago Douglas Durst, the chairman of the renowned New York real estate company The Durst Organization, had this question thrown at him. He was in Copenhagen at the time to give a lecture on sustainable construction. At the end of the presentation a young man came up to him to introduce himself as Bjarke Ingels, an architect. The strange question ensued. “Because they are buildings,” Douglas responded. It remains unclear whether either of them was any the wiser after that conversation, but the next time the Durst chairman travelled to Scandinavia he fitted in a visit to Bjarke’s studio BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group). The designs, creativity and inventiveness he saw there left a deep impression on Douglas and he had an idea: Why not ask BIG to collaborate on a project that had been a headache for The Durst Organization since 1999: refurbishing part of a block on West 57th Street in Manhattan, right on the Hudson River. A number of options had been considered over the years, from a data centre via a school to a hotel or office complex. In the end a decision was taken to create an iconic apartment building, with the difference being made by Bjarke Ingels’ unique vision.

VIA 57 West - as the building is officially called - opened its doors in March, and everyone agrees that BIG has completed the contract with panache. Manhattan’s skyline has been enriched by a remarkable pyramid structure, or rather a ‘hyperbolic paraboloid’. “That means that you work with straight lines even if they appear to be curved,” Beat Schenk, BIG Senior Project Manager, explains. “It’s an optical illusion that allowed us to let as much natural light into the apartments as possible and to open up the maximum view over the Hudson. With this shape you are also able to create the largest mass with the least impact on the neighbourhood. Moreover, in this way we allow sufficient light from the south though to the garden, which feels really bright even in winter.”

The unusual structure had yet another advantage that linked up to an important principle for the entire undertaking: sustainability. As the apartments receive so much light, energy savings are achieved. “We also set the bar high for other aspects of indoor environmental quality, water reuse, energy efficiency, and materials management,” says Amanda Kaminsky, an authority in this specific area as the founder of Building Product Ecosystems LLC. “We have gone further than any similar apartment block in New York.” Beat acknowledges that the staff at BIG were pleasantly surprised by the requirements set by The Durst Organization. “By definition we look into the entire life cycle of the materials we use. But when you work for private sector clients, you also have to keep the financial side at the back of your mind. And that’s a challenge sometimes. In this case the client put forward an entire package of requirements on sustainability of their own accord.”