The Danish architect took his charm offensive to the stage at this year?s New Yorker Festival Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, founder of architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), took the stage yesterday morning at the New Yorker Festival, that annual celebration of folks in the arts, letters, and sciences. Ingels is often described as a "wunderkind"?At 42, he is, as Sunday morning?s moderator, New Yorker magazine staff writer Ian Parker pointed out, decades younger than most architects in positions of prominence in the field.

But in a wide-ranging, 90-minute talk?which also involved some impressive live sketching?Ingels tackled topics from what makes for good architecture, to creating dense urban housing, and the BIG design for 2 World Trade Center. In it, he proved that, whether or not you?re a fan of his effervescent public persona, there?s some intelligent thinking deployed in the work of his firm. And this thinking tends to challenge certain status quos about the design process, "style" in architecture, and architects? role in the public sphere, even as some journalists, historians, and, perhaps, TIME magazine (which named Ingels one of its 100 Most Influential People this year, dubbed him the "highflyer of skylines") cling to the notion of architecture as a profession of single, oft-male, protagonist-masterminds. Here are three highlights from the conversation, should you want the CliffsNotes version of the chat:

1. "Arc...