The sloping ‘hill’ design of this waste-to-energy plant, naturally, features a ski slope and requires more waste than the city produces to run at profit
As part of Copenhagen’s plan to attain ‘zero carbon’ by 2025, the city commissioned Europe’s most expensive waste-to-energy incineration plant, with a masterplan by BIG. The name of the plant Amager Bakke means Amager Hill, and refers to the geological profile of the building with its sloping silhouette. This plunging roofline will, in typically bumptious BIG fashion, eventually become an artificial ski slope, while the plant’s chimney is designed to emit smoke rings. Because the plant is intended to supply heat to the city, which has the world’s most extensive district heating system, it is located only 3km from the centre. Reassuring residents, the authorities insist that emissions will be negligible, something that critics have contested. It has also transpired that the plant requires more waste than the city produces in order to run at profit, and so Copenhagen has had to begin importing rubbish.
This case study is part of Typology: Power station. Read the full article here
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