Photo: Max Mestour and Amelie Louys
Located on the water in Copenhagen is the Amager Resource Center, a waste-to-energy plant that provides heat and electricity to tens of thousands of households. And atop the building is CopenHill, an artificial mountain with a nearly 1,500-foot ski slope, four ski lifts, a hiking trail, restaurant, kids area, and more. If that weren’t mind-boggling enough, die-hard adventurers can scale the side of the peak via the world’s highest climbing wall, a towering 278 feet. “There are absolutely no hills or mountains in Denmark,” said Bjarke Ingels, founder of the architecture firm that created CopenHill. “So we got to the idea that we could actually create a manmade mountain for alpine skiing.” He added: “A power plant doesn’t have to be some kind of ugly box that blocks the views or casts shadows on its neighbors. It can actually be, maybe the most popular park in a city.” Ingels is pretty proud himself, telling an interviewer: “It’s a beacon in showing the world that clean tech presents almost utopian possibilities.”
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