Last week, Bjarke Ingels toured visitors around Hot to Cold, a survey of the architect's work, at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

BIG's concept includes a lawn between the Smithsonian’s historic Castle and Independence Avenue that curls upward at its corners.

The Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) is looking to raise the profile of the Smithsonian’s lesser-known spaces.

Architects do a lousy job of selling their ideas to the general public, said Bjarke Ingels, on Thursday morning during his keynote address at Architectural Record’s annual Innovation conference in New York.

“Humble” seems an unlikely word to associate with an architect who, at 36, has already built three inventive apartment complexes on his home turf of Copenhagen, has a high-profile commission for another in New York City, and is the darling of the design blogosphere.

The Copenhagen-based architectural firm of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), featured in Record’s Vanguard issue (December 2009, page 52) has expanded its partnership as of December 1.