COPENHAGEN, Oct 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Copenhill, a new artificial ski slope built on the roof of a huge waste incinerator here, was opened to the public on Friday.
While the public can whizz down the 450-meter ski slope, up to 450,000 tonnes of waste will continue to be converted annually into heat and electricity in Amager Bakke Incinerator Plant underneath skiing guests’ feet.
Architects from Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), a group which designed Copenhill, said there will be no unpleasant smells either inside the factory or on the roof.
“It’s a great example of what we call hedonistic sustainability. You drive up into a glass elevator where you can look into the factory at the same time,” David Zahle, a partner at BIG, told building magazine Dagens Byggeri.
It provides an unconventional “clash” between experience and the fact that it is a working factory, Zahle added.
“We have the highest environmental standards. We have the highest energy efficiency. And we have the safest plant in the world,” Jacob Simonsen, director of Amager Resource Center which runs the ski area, said in a press release.
“There are absolutely no hills or mountains in Denmark”, says Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.
“So we got to the idea that we could actually create a manmade mountain for alpine skiing.”
“A power plant doesn’t have to be some kind of ugly box that blocks the views or casts shadows on its neighbours. It can actually be, maybe the most popular park in a city,” Ingels said.
Bakke means hill in Danish. For a country whose highest point is a mere 170m, the new 85m summit has become a landmark and has also stirred debate about how best to handle the city’s waste.
Amager Bakke is billed as one of the cleanest waste-to-energy plants in the world, thanks to technology that filters its emissions.
It was switched on in 2017, and on Friday the ski area opens to the public. The project has been almost a decade in the making and cost €550m ($600m; £490m) to build.
From the plant’s rooftop there are views over the city, harbour and the heavy industry close by. Apartment blocks stand just a couple of hundred metres away.
Soon skiers will be able to whizz down the 450m slope that wraps around the aluminium-clad building. Around 50-60,000 skiers are expected each year. — NNN-AGENCIES
