BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), the architectural practice behind many of the world's most audacious leisure buildings, has added four new partners to manage growth.

The practice, which currently has offices in New York and Copenhagen, has also appointed 17 new associates.

The new partners are Beat Schenk – who’s worked with BIG since 2011; Daniel Sundlin – who led the design for the Audemars Piguet Museum in Switzerland; Jakob Sand – who worked on the MECA Cultural Centre, Bordeaux, France; and Brian Yang – who has been with BIG since 2007 and is project leader on the upcoming Amager Resource Centre Waste-to-Energy plant in Copenhagen (which has a ski slope on top) and Denmark’s LEGO experience centre, set to open in 2017.

“With our arrival in New York four years ago, we have become a truly global office, entrusted with amazing as well as challenging projects in more than 20 countries worldwide,” said practice head, Bjarke Ingels.

“It’s only natural we expand our leadership and partnership with key members of our team. My new partners and associates are friends and colleagues for whom I have the greatest respect and admiration and whom I see playing a crucial part in our architectural adventures over the years to come,” he said.

Among BIG's current projects are Givskud Zoo in Denmark – dubbed Zootopia – France's Europa City, expected to be one of the largest leisure developments in Europe, and a masterplan for the US$2bn (€1.6bn, £1.3bn) Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC.

The firm is also relocating its New York City headquarters to 61 Broadway in the Central Business District.