The vivid blue and green artificial ski slope atop Bjarke Ingels Group’s mountain-shaped Amager Resource Center in Copenhagen is ready for action. The novel waste-to-energy plant aims to be fun and educational while producing power, offering three different gradients of ski surfaces suitable for all experience levels as well as a park complete with hiking trails, climbing walls and greenery, all for year-round public use. While the slopes won’t be open to all for a few more months, Denmark’s TV2 Lorry was on hand to capture some early tests.
Situated in an industrial waterfront area, the so-called “urban mountain” adds to a range of fun physical activities and sports accessible nearby, including sailing, cable skiing and go-karts. But the architecture firm isn’t necessarily trying to gloss over the purpose of the building with all these unusual features. In fact, the mountain will release a ring of smoke into the air every time one ton of carbon dioxide emissions is produced “as a gentle reminder of the impact of consumption.”
BIG calls the project “a fun new breed of waste-to-energy plant, one that is economically, environmentally, and socially profitable. Instead of considering Amager Resource Center as an isolated architectural object, we consider the assignment to design a facade as an opportunity for the local context.
Slope images by TV2/Lorry; all other photos by Aldo Amoretti
