The video is an exploration of the work and influence of architect Bjarke Ingalls, the visionary designer behind numerous groundbreaking projects worldwide. At just 41, Ingalls has become a prominent figure in modern architecture, particularly known for his innovative and unconventional designs that challenge traditional architectural norms. His notable projects include the final tower at the World Trade Center, the futuristic Googleplex in Silicon Valley, and the New York LEGO headquarters, among others.

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. starchitect ['stɑːrkəˌtɛkt] - (noun) - An architect who is very famous and influential, often associated with iconic or large-scale projects. - Synonyms: (celebrity architect, iconic architect, famous designer)

He is the architect of the moment, a starchitect designing everything from skyscrapers to an NFL stadium.

2. provocative [prəˈvɑːkətɪv] - (adjective) - Causing a strong reaction, such as anger or excitement. - Synonyms: (challenging, stimulating, controversial)

Bjarke Engels' designs can be inventive, can be provocative, and are anything but boring.

3. hyperbolic paraboloid [ˈhaɪpərˌbɑːlɪk pəˈræbəˌlɔɪd] - (noun) - A three-dimensional geometric shape with properties of a hyperbola and a paraboloid. - Synonyms: (saddle surface, mathematical surface, geometric shape)

The roof itself is something you call a saddle shape, or in geometric terms, you call it a hyperbolic paraboloid.

4. tyranny [ˈtɪrəni] - (noun) - Cruel or oppressive use of power or control. - Synonyms: (oppression, domination, despotism)

Ingalls says he set out to disrupt modern architecture's tyranny of what he calls the formulaic boring box.

5. whimsical [ˈwɪmzɪkəl] - (adjective) - Playfully quaint or fanciful, especially in an appealing or amusing way. - Synonyms: (fanciful, playful, quirky)

Almost immediately, he began to win design competitions, making a name for himself with inventive, whimsical designs.

6. megalomaniacal [ˌmɛɡələˌmeɪniˈækəl] - (adjective) - Having an obsession with power and dominance. - Synonyms: (overbearing, controlling, power-hungry)

It's like the more it looks like a Mechalomaniacal.

7. chimney ['ʧɪmni] - (noun) - A vertical structure for venting smoke and gases from a building. - Synonyms: (smokestack, flue, funnel)

This is a chimney that belches steam rings.

8. incinerating [ɪnˈsɪnəˌreɪtɪŋ] - (verb) - Burning something completely to ashes. - Synonyms: (burning, combusting, reducing to ashes)

It will go atop a green garbage incinerating power plant in Copenhagen.

9. spectacle [ˈspɛktəkəl] - (noun) - A visually striking performance or display. - Synonyms: (display, show, exhibit)

...the old starchitect model, which is glamour and spectacle.

10. redevelopment [ˌriːdɪˈvɛləpmənt] - (noun) - The process of improving or remaking something, especially a part of a town or city. - Synonyms: (renovation, restoration, revitalization)

...and has spent the last 14 years on the site's redevelopment.

Architect Bjarke Ingels - 60 Minutes Archive

It was the pioneer of modern architecture, Le Corbusier, who said houses were machines for living in. And at the ripe old age of 41, Bjarke Ingalls is turning out a lot of unusual machines. He is the architect of the moment, a starchitect designing everything from skyscrapers to an NFL stadium. But as Morley Safer discovered, young Mr. Ingalls designs can be inventive, can be provocative, and are anything but boring.

Bjarke Ingalls is having his moment. When you see it from the memorial. He's not only designing the final tower at the World Trade Center, basically at the middle of the ski slope, so it continues all the way down to there. He's striding the globe with some 60 projects in the works. It's still very much work in progress. There's the Googolplex, Google's futuristic complex of domes planned for its campus in Silicon Valley. We were quite worried about that distance. And the new LEGO headquarters in his native Denmark.

In New York City alone, he has five major projects underway, including a $3 billion high rise planned for Hudson Yards. That's a great view of New York. So we decided to take to the Hudson river to have a look, starting with this, a massive, almost finished apartment complex for all those young and restless New Yorkers striving to make their first millions. Tell me why you call it the Court Scrape. It's the unlikely child of a New York skyscraper, and if you like, a Copenhagen courtyard building. But it's also a pyramid. It also could be a sail. Exactly. Eventually we just realized we had to make it much more extreme. So it became a single tower to the east that then drops towards the water.

The roof itself is something you call a saddle shape, or in geometric terms, you call it a hyperbolic paraboloid. It's almost like that. Say that three times quickly. Are you surprised how good it is or how bad it is or how unique it is? It's paradoxical for an architect. The only thing you can see is all the battles you lost, all the compromises that had to be made or the ups that couldn't be fixed. You're gonna have to bleep that out.

The rise and rise of young Mr. Ingalls started here in Copenhagen, where he grew up. His father an engineer, his mother a dentist. I wanted to be a cartoonist, but there was no Cartoon Academy. So I enrolled in the Royal Danish Art Academy School of Architecture. And I really got smitten by architecture. We don't want any verticals, so we have from the beginning, Ingalls says he set out to disrupt modern architecture's tyranny of what he calls the formulaic boring box. When I started studying architecture, people would say, can you tell me why are all modern buildings so boring? Because people had this idea that in the good old days, architecture had like, ornament and little towers and spires and gargoyles, and today it just becomes very practical.

After graduation, Ingalls lasted just two years working for famed architect Rem Koolhaas before setting out on his own. In 2005, he formed Big for the Bjarke Ingels Group from his tiny apartment in Copenhagen. Denmark is one of the smallest countries on the planet, and there is something funny about calling a company Big. I think if I would have started BIG in America, I would probably never have called it Big. There was nothing but like a little bit of local small country humor in the idea.

Almost immediately, he began to win design competitions, making a name for himself with inventive, whimsical designs for what can often be deadly boring suburban apartment buildings. Five years ago, we had built a few projects in Copenhagen that were in a way ordinary projects like housing and parking and shops and offices. But we had put them together in a way that created maybe remarkable results. And suddenly we got an invitation to come to New York and look at the site on 57th Street. And in a way, I had nothing better to do. So I thought, why don't I move to New York and see how it goes?

It went pretty well. He now oversees 300 employees between offices in New York and Copenhagen. It's like the more it looks like a Mechalomaniacal. Ingalls believes his success comes from his ability to combine the practical with the fantastical. Like this harbor bath in Copenhagen where swimmers can swim in the city's harbor.

Or how about this? The design for the just unveiled new Redskin Stadium, complete with a moat for all those kayaking tailgaters. Tailgating literally becomes a picnic in a park. The culture at BIG is intense, but in off hours, blowing off steam dressed as their favorite comic book heroes isn't uncommon. That's the boss armed with a gun full of tequila. The way we work is maybe unlike certain architects that have a very particular style, where it is the auteur. It has to be the design principal who makes the strokes of genius. I don't have to come up with the best idea. It is my job to make sure that it is always the best idea that wins.

I think Doug is really a wonderful spokesman for Himself and for, I would say also for the possibility that architecture can really make life better for people. Michael Kimmelman is the architecture critic for the New York Times. He says Ingalls has combined natural talent with a mastery of marketing. A so called starchitect. It's rare that you get architects who are really in their 30s and 40s who get to build big projects. And Bjork has figured that out partly by selling a certain youthful notion of the old starchitect model, which is glamour and spectacle. And he does something that I think is very important nowadays, which is to combine a notion of his own work with some larger social purpose.

The thing that strikes me is that a lot of people are willing to lay down billions of dollars. Billions? Yeah. With a B. Yeah. On this K. I mean, it is a gamble. He's got a lot of work coming down the pike. How is he going to make sure that work is not recycled, is original, that it's finished? Well, there must be criticism by other architects.

The more you are up to something interesting, the more it's going to inspire praise and criticism. And in your case, we have a fair amount of sunshine and the opposite. And I think if you would take all of that to heart, you wouldn't be able to, to, you know, draw a line or lay a brick. Bring us at a topping ceremony. Ingalls has become a celebrity at home in Denmark, where he's designing the new headquarters of the most iconic of toy makers, Lego. At the topping off ceremony in October, townspeople waited in line in the rain to catch a glimpse of the new building and its architects. So that steel is the tie back. That fame has also allowed him to take more risks and add more spectacle to his creations.

This is a chimney that belches steam rings. It will go atop a green garbage incinerating power plant in Copenhagen. The roof doubles as a ski slope. I mean, the building says, come and look at me. Yet since this power plant is really saving a lot of CO2 emissions, it's almost a complete reversal of the symbolism of a chimney. The idea for the outrageous structure originally started as a joke. Normally you would want to be as far away from a power plant as possible because it's polluting, it's noisy, it's smelly. But this is so clean that you essentially have clean mountain air on the roof of it. And we thought maybe it would make sense to make it a ski slope.

And so, yeah, great idea. Like, let's get serious. But then when you stop laughing, it felt like, wait a minute, maybe this is not so stupid. Maybe it's actually a good idea. Never mind the starchitect appellation. You're an activist. If you're just reaffirming the status quo, then you are missing the point that the city is never complete. So every project we do somehow has to count, particularly this one. The design for 2 World Trade Center. The final tower set to rise on the site.

2 World Trade is roughly going to be as tall as One World Trade, but without the spire. And if you see it from here, it would appear as a series of seven city blocks of different proportions stepping up towards the sky. It must have been a very difficult assignment given that so much of that part of New York is hallowed ground. Oh, yes, but also because the site is so complex. There's like 11 subway lines, there's like multiple highways, service roads, power plants. Like the entire underground is like an anthill of complexity.

So I was like, really scared that now we were getting the opportunity of a lifetime and we would be so restricted that it would be almost impossible to come up with something. His designs can be counted on to be different. Developer Larry Silverstein bought the original Twin Towers just weeks before the attacks on 911 and has spent the last 14 years on the site's redevelopment. Did you have any qualms about this very, very young architect? I mean, most architects don't come into their own till their 60s or even 80s.

And here he is, 40, looking like 20. Buzette Silverstein, it's time for you to realize, right, we're in a. We're in another era, right? The fact that I'm almost 85 years of age, maybe it's time for me to begin to be a little more flexible when it comes to these things. The story will continue after this. The seasoned developer, who's seen it all and the young starchitect have become an architectural odd couple. I find this very tough for women to walk on. For anybody in heels. If you talk to our people, our maintenance people, I'll tell you, this is becoming an unmitigated disaster.

The rebuilding effort at the World Trade center has been long and tortured, full of false starts and, and unrealized plans. Tower 2 is no different. In 2005, the job designing it had gone to preeminent architect Norman Foster, a British lord, no less. But the proposed tower was never built. When Rupert Murdoch and his son James decided to move Fox's headquarters to the site, they brought in Ingalls and Foster's design was scrapped.

There was a palace coup and Foster was out, but Foster was designing really a different project for another client. You were chosen over one of the world's leading architecture firms, Norman Foster. How did you pull that off? The design that had already been designed for the site was very much designed in the thinking of the old financial district. And as the whole neighborhood has changed, what was needed was a different kind of building. And sometimes the setup needs to change. Which it did yet again when Rupert Murdoch went from Daddy Warbucks to Scrooge and pulled out of the deal to move to 2 world trade, leaving Silverstein on the hook to find a new tenant and get the building built the second.

We have designed them and built them. They belong to everybody. As for Ingalls, he's acutely aware of his responsibility for the tower's design, knowing that 911 is forever etched in all of our minds. I got a letter from a brother of a firefighter that gave his life at the 9 11. And he just wrote me to say that I see it as a giant staircase to heaven, evoking the heroic stair climb of the first responders at 9 11. And to him, he thought the skyline of Manhattan itself would commemorate the heroism and sacrifice of 9 11.

I couldn't claim that we had thought of it like that, but now I can't think of the building without also seeing that interpretation. It must be a great honor to have gotten that commission. It's probably the most watched skyline in the world, so it's definitely a place where you better get it right.

ARCHITECTURE, INNOVATION, INSPIRATION, BJARKE INGALLS, MODERN DESIGN, WORLD TRADE CENTER, 60 MINUTES