Posted on 7382 BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, the acclaimed global architecture firm whose groundbreaking work incorporates innovations in architecture, has collaborated with The Metals Company, a developer of lower-impact battery metals from seafloor polymetallic nodules, to remake conventional metal production for the 21 st century as society embarks on the transition to a net-zero-carbon future. The Metals Company announced in March that it will merge with Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corporation (NYSE:SOAC) to go public on the NASDAQ in Q2 2021. Zero-solid-waste metallurgical plant (Photo: Business Wire) The Metals Company’s challenge with BIG was to bring innovative, whole-systems design to the industrial components needed to supply the world with critical battery metals from polymetallic nodules—fist-sized rocks containing battery-grade nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese—while reimagining the nexus of industry and community. BIG delivered an integrated suite of assets that work together to lift nodules off the seafloor and up to a purpose-built production vessel, transfer them to a hydrodynamic shuttle carrier, and onward to a metallurgical plant designed to transform an urban port site into a battery materials innovation and community hub, set within a regenerative coastal landscape.