Amagerforbraendigen by Bjarke Ingels Group

What would be happened if your country had no mountains and no ski slopes? We suppose not what the Danish Government did for the city of Copenhagen. In an effort to replace a 40 years old energy plant they called all interested parties to make project proposals. Among the big architectural names, BIG finally won the 3.5 billion Danish crown project. Owner of the company is the 36 years old Danish architect, Bjarke Ingels, who unveiled the plans of the Waste-to-Energy plant and as we read in the press release the structure will incorporate “the latest technologies in waste treatment and environmental performance”. “Instead of considering the new Amagerforbraending as an isolated architectural object,” the release says, “the building is conceived as an opportunity to create a destination”. What Ingels means by that, is that the roof of the energy plant will be transformed into a 333,700-square-foot artificial ski slope and the whole building will look like as a mountain.

The proposal takes on epic proportions considering the fact that Copenhagen is flat and that an energy plant becomes a leisure and sport zone. “The new waste incineration plant is an example of what we at BIG call Hedonistic Sustainability – the idea that sustainability is not a burden, but that a sustainable city in fact can improve our quality of life,” Ingels says. “The Waste-to-Energy plant with a ski slope is the best example of a city and a building which is both ecologically, economically and socially sustainable”.

The building’s exterior is billed as a “vertical green façade” with planters stacked like bricks. The surrounding land will be turned into a recreational park. According to the press release every time one tonne of fossil CO2 is released, the smokestack discharges a 30m smoke ring into the air "as a gentle reminder of the impact of consumption and a measuring stick that will allow the common Copenhagener to grasp the CO2 emission in a straightforward way".

The Waste-to-Energy Plant will be completed in 2016.