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.

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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

You barely have to stop on your way down the slope to grab a burger and fries at the McDonalds ski-through window, located on a popular resort in northwest Sweden. The location has been open since the mid-‘90s and can seat 140 people inside, though most seem to choose the grab-and-go option. Why bother taking off your gear when you can just chow down and then hop right back on the lift?

Meanwhile, in the small Swedish town of Pitea, locals get only four hours of sunlight a day in the winter, with temperatures hovering around minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit. That means most residents use snowmobiles to get around, leading to bizarre scenes like the one pictured below.

As weird as the McSki McDonalds might be in comparison to the ones in your neighborhood, it doesn’t even break the top 10 most bizarre locations of the fast food chain around the world. In addition to the world’s largest McDonalds, a UFO-shaped location and a brandless, minimalist ‘Quarter Pounder’ experiment in Tokyo, there’s the rotting carcass of a ‘McBarge’ floating in an inlet in Canada.

‘Please do not apply if you’re scared of heights,’ warns AirBnB about this private sky-high chalet located at the very top of the Holmenkollen ski jump, where some of the world’s top skiers have launched themselves onto the slopes. The fully-furnished apartment is 250 steps above the world’s first ski museum, and features the highest roof terrace in all of Oslo. Tell AirBnB why you’d like to stay here in 100 worlds or less, and you could win the chance to experience it yourself.

The vacation rental service is offering up a one-night stay at the Holmenkollen ski jump and as long as you’re available on March 26th or 27th, if you win, they’ll fly you in from anywhere in the world. You have until midnight on March 16th to submit your entry.

The ski jump superstructure was first built in 1892 and hosted the 1952 Winter Olympics, where expert skiers gazed out onto the Nordic landscape before flying off the ramp in front of thousands of spectators. Since 1923, it’s also been home to a museum displaying over 4,000 years of ski history. The pinnacle, where the apartment is located, is 200 feet in the air.

Only pros are allowed to use the ski jump, “so don’t think you’re going to be pulling any tricks in your toboggan,” says AirBnB. But you’ll be steps away from thousands of miles of ski slopes, and if you want, you can even leave via zip-line when your trip is over. Apply here.

In a remote, restricted natural area of Norway that can only be reached by skis, a certain predilection for winter sports is pretty much a necessity – but this cabin design, by Fantastic Norway, takes you one step further with a slanted roof that doubles as a ski slope.

Building restrictions put a limit on the building material, the roof angle and the height of the cabin in a desire to preserve the look of classic mountain lodges in the area. But the client wanted a home that they could actually use as a platform for skiing, sled riding and winter picnicking.

The result is a home that just barely peeks out of the mountainside, blending into the landscape, allowing wind and snow to blow and fall around it just as if it were made of earth or rock. The home contains two bedrooms on the ground floor and a third on the second floor.

Fantastic Norway is known for creating modern, somewhat eerie concepts that are entirely fitting for their remote, icy environments. Two similar projects include House of Families (top), a series of interconnected homes for disadvantaged women and children in Nuuk, Greenland, and a spare, angular coastal cabin situated on a rocky hill.