Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group is complete with its new headquarters: a concrete structure stretching out along the industrial harbor in Copenhagen’s Nordhavn neighborhood. The 27-meter-tall building has an impressive 140-meter-long staircase wrapping its perimeter, serving both vertical circulation and as a fire escape.

The design comes through with extensive glazed openings patterned in a checkboard, which breaks the very monolithic facade nicely. Made from proprietary Uni-Green concrete, developed along with concrete manufacturer Unicon, this structure is less impactful on the environment than normal concrete, as 25 percent less CO2 would be released during the course of production.

A series of interconnected concrete blocks frame the external staircase, which serves to facilitate movement between the seven floors but also provides outdoor terraces at each level. These are embellished with shrubbery and culminate in a spacious roof terrace, making the building more connected to the outdoors.

At ground level, a new 1,500 square meters public park is provided to replace the old car park. This new entrance is a very large three-meter glass door at which visitors and staff get to enter.

Inside, the headquarters features a generous open-plan layout highlighted by a dramatic four-storey entrance area. A zigzagging staircase crafted from blackened steel serves as a focal point, connecting the building’s various levels. The interior is characterized by exposed concrete and wooden storage solutions, creating a functional yet aesthetically pleasing environment.

Another element that supports BIG energy efficiency is the solar and geothermal energy systems. This completes about 60 percent of the building’s total energy requirement. The BIG example is the LEAPP approach of the firm. The acronym LEAPP refers to a framework that emphasizes landscape, engineering, architecture, planning, and product design, which are involved with inter-disciplinary teamwork across all teams in the company. According to the studio’s founder, Bjarke Ingels, LEAPP philosophies aim to help architectural practices become a single comprehensive source of knowledge and competence.

It will be BIG’s headquarters after another set of showstoppers, including their twisting One High Line skyscrapers in New York and more recently, its Los Angeles office in a transformed 1920s building. With this new finished innovative architecture, BIG emphasizes its concern for sustainability, as well as inter-disciplinary approaches to architecture.