The rooftop park and artificial ski slope that will top Bjarke Ingels Group’s (BIG) Amager Bakke waste-to-energy plant, now known as Amager Ressourcecenter (ARC), has officially opened. In addition to the BIG-designed ski slope, the rooftop will also feature a nature-filled park, designed by SLA Architects.
The artificial ski slope is being created with a product from Neveplast, a company that creates dry ski slopes. The slope will feature various shades of green that will be a lighter shade in the middle and become progressively darker near the edges. The ski slope will start its approximately 1,640-foot-long run at the tallest point of the 290-foot-tall building’s roof. It will run to the power plant’s base and feature two turns equaling 180 degrees. Beneath the ski slope, furnaces, steam, and turbines convert 440,000 tons of waste annually into enough clean energy to deliver electricity and district heating for 150,000 homes.
Photo: Søren Aagaard.
The internal volumes of the power plant are determined by the positioning and organization of its machinery in height order, creating an efficient, sloping rooftop fit for a 9,000m2 ski terrain. At the top, experts can glide down the artificial ski slope with the same length as an Olympic half-pipe, test the freestyle park, or try the timed slalom course, while beginners and kids practice on the lower slopes. Skiers ascend the park from the platter lift, carpet lifts or glass elevator for a glimpse inside the 24-hour operations of a waste-to-plant.
See Also: BIG’s Audemars Piguet hotel des Horlogers allows guests to ski down the roof
The accompanying park will include hiking trails, climbing walls, trail running, vantage points, a rooftop bar, crossfit areas, and playgrounds across a 10,000-sm green roof. After experimenting with a wide range of nature-based design solutions, SLA specially selected different nature biotropes to withstand some of the difficult living conditions the building presented, such as the complicated wind and weather conditions found 290 feet in the air and heat from the large energy boilers under the roof.
Photo: Rasmus Hjortshoj.
The nature will not just be contained to the power plant’s roof, as it has been designed to spread biodiversity to the surrounding area. “The rooftop’s nature is designed to attract and shelter a wide selection of birds, bees, butterflies and insects, which in itself will mean a dramatic increase in the biodiversity of the area. And utilizing natural pollination and seed dispersal will mean that we can spread the rooftop nature to also benefit the adjacent industry area, parking lots, and infrastructure. In this way, Amager Bakke will function as a generous ‘green bomb’ that will radically green-up the entire area,” said Rasmus Astrup, Partner and Project Director, SLA, in a release.
The dry ski slope and elements of the neighboring park are currently being installed and tested ahead of the planned April opening.
Photo: Laurian Ghinitoiu.
Related Stories
| Apr 12, 2011
Mitsubishi commissions electric power manufacturing plant in Memphis
Greenville, S.C.-based design and construction firm O’Neal Inc. is providing design, engineering, procurement, and construction services for Mitsubishi Electric Power Products.
| Feb 23, 2011
Data center trends: green design, technology upgrades
While green data centers will continue to be a trend within the industry, technology is also driving infrastructure upgrades that have never been seen before, according to the 2011 Data Center Technical Market Report from Environmental Systems Design. The report also includes an overview of the national data center market, construction costs, blackouts and disaster prevention, and site selection.
| Jan 4, 2011
Grubb & Ellis predicts commercial real estate recovery
Grubb & Ellis Company, a leading real estate services and investment firm, released its 2011 Real Estate Forecast, which foresees the start of a slow recovery in the leasing market for all property types in the coming year.
| Nov 29, 2010
Data Centers: Keeping Energy, Security in Check
Power consumption for data centers doubled from 2000 and 2006, and it is anticipated to double again by 2011, making these mission-critical facilities the nation’s largest commercial user of electric power. Major technology companies, notably Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, and International Business Machines, are investing heavily in new data centers. HP, which acquired technology services provider EDS in 2008, announced in June that it would be closing many of its older data centers and would be building new, more highly optimized centers around the world.
| Nov 3, 2010
Public works complex gets eco-friendly addition
The renovation and expansion of the public works operations facility in Wilmette, Ill., including a 5,000-sf addition that houses administrative and engineering offices, locker rooms, and a lunch room/meeting room, is seeking LEED Gold certification.
| Oct 12, 2010
The Watch Factory, Waltham, Mass.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards — Gold Award. When the Boston Watch Company opened its factory in 1854 on the banks of the Charles River in Waltham, Mass., the area was far enough away from the dust, dirt, and grime of Boston to safely assemble delicate watch parts.
| Oct 12, 2010
Building 13 Naval Station, Great Lakes, Ill.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Gold Award. Designed by Chicago architect Jarvis Hunt and constructed in 1903, Building 13 is one of 39 structures within the Great Lakes Historic District at Naval Station Great Lakes, Ill.
| Oct 12, 2010
Full Steam Ahead for Sustainable Power Plant
An innovative restoration turns a historic but inoperable coal-burning steam plant into a modern, energy-efficient marvel at Duke University.
| Oct 12, 2010
From ‘Plain Box’ to Community Asset
The Mid-Ohio Foodbank helps provide 55,000 meals a day to the hungry. Who would guess that it was once a nondescript mattress factory?
